The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) predicts an increase in tourist arrivals thanks to the calm political situation and the waiving of Chinese tourists’ visa fees.

The TCT is preparing to present tourism promotion policies to the government by setting a target of collecting 4 trillion THB in tourism revenue by 2018.

According to TCT President Piyaman Tejapaibul, the calm political atmosphere and measures of waiving Chinese tourist's visa fees would lure over 7 million tourist arrivals in the four quarter of this year, a rise of 7 percent.

Thailand expects to welcome 25 million foreign tourists and create a tourism revenue of 1.9 trillion THB this year. However, those figures are still lower than the TCT’s earlier target of 28 million and 2.2 trillion THB, respectively. Therefore, the agency plans to suggest tourism promotion measures to the Minister of Sports and Tourism.

Short term plans include enhancing cooperation between the state and related agencies for better management of services at tourist destinations, promoting Thailand 's serenity to the outside world through various media outlets, and boosting domestic tourism with legally registered business operators.

As for long term plans, a tourism roadmap will be suggested in order to achieve the goal of earning 4 trillion THB from tourism by 2018.-VNA