At Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand (Photo: Xinhua) Sudawan said that the government aims to achievethis ambitious target as soon as possible, but it needs more time to draft anaction plan.
She affirmed that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin hasgiven her ministry the tools to attract more tourists, starting witheliminating visa requirements for some travellers and easing the travel processat airports, adding that the ministry have to draw up a lot more projects tohelp achieve the targets.
She underlined that given the new target of 3 trillion THB,the tourism projects over the next four years should be large and consistent,not one-time events, creating a new reputation for Thailand by using softpower, she said. The ministry is focusing on sports and entertainment eventsthat could draw a large audience, such as international concerts and sportingevents, said Sudawan.
The target for 2024 tourism income, including both domesticand international markets, is set at 3.3 trillion THB, an increase from 3trillion THB recorded in 2019.
Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Governor of the Tourism Authority ofThailand (TAT), said the agency plans to monitor Chinese and Kazakhstan marketsentiment starting on September 18 to determine feedback on forward bookingsafter Thailand announced visa exemptions for visitors from both nations fromSeptember 25 until February 29 next year.
Without the visa measures, the Chinese market might reachonly 3.7 million this year. With the visa exemption, the number should tally4.1-4.2 million, said Thapanee.
She said the TAT still plans to push airlines to increaseseat capacity to help achieve the government target of 2.38 trillion baht from27-28 million tourists this year. Thailand has 2.51 million seats allotted forthe high season from October to March, which is only 40% of the 2019 level. TheTAT is working with airlines to add both chartered and scheduled flights tofill up available slots at airports in the final quarter, she added./.
VNA
