TAT Revises Its Target To 700,000 Foreign Tourists Arriving in Thailand

Despite revising their initial target of 1 million foreign tourists, the Tourism Authority of Thailand or TAT anticipates 700,000 foreign tourists this year. Thailand has implemented various programs to attract foreigners during the COVID-19, with varying degrees of success.

Among all the tourism schemes, the Phuket Sandbox was considered the most successful but the program only attracted 60,649 tourists from July 1 to October 31. Another 25,000 foreign tourists came under the Samui Plus scheme, the 7+7 Sandbox Extension, the Special Tourist Visa, the Thailand Privilege Card, and other programs, bringing the total to 85,845 travelers.

Thailand has started its biggest tourism program to date, with the November 1 reopening enabling foreign tourists to enter the country through 3 separate programs. The Test & Go program only requires an overnight quarantine since travelers come and need to be tested for COVID-19 and then remain in an authorized hotel for 1 night while waiting for the test results. Living in the Blue Zone entails a 7-day soft quarantine in which visitors are permitted to visit 1 of the 17 Sandbox destinations before being allowed to go anywhere in the country. On the other hand, the Happy Quarantine program is a 10-day mandatory quarantine for unvaccinated travelers.

It is unknown whether the new plan will bring another 615,000 tourists until the end of the year, but an average of 10,000 people per day would be needed to achieve that goal. Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok saw just 4,510 arrivals in total in the first 2 days of reopening.

Before the pandemic, Thailand recorded 40 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2019, generating 1.91 trillion baht. However, as a result of the country’s strict restrictions for 19 months due to the effect of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, arrivals decreased by 83% to only 6.7 million, bringing revenue of a measly 332 billion baht. The same thing happened in 2021 wherein the country experienced a 99.8% decrease in tourist arrivals compared to 2019.

The TAT anticipates a significant increase in travel tourism next year, with domestic and foreign tourists expected to produce a combined total of 1.58 trillion baht. TAT forecast earnings of 818 billion baht from foreign travelers and 771 billion baht from local tourists.

The TAT launched a new marketing campaign titled “Visit Thailand Year 2022” in conjunction with the World Travel Market 2021, which took place on November 1 to 3, and followed by the “Amazing Thailand, Amazing New Chapters” scheme, following Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-call cha’s call to encourage government agencies to market tourism and sustainability, as well as the government’s Bio-Circular-Green economy model.

They seek to create a positive image of Thailand as it is currently recovering from the effects of the pandemic in the economy for almost two years.

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SOURCE: Asia News Today