Tourists in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: AFP/VNA)Bangkok (VNA) - The Tourism Council ofThailand is preparing to start its “We Love Thailand” campaign to stimulatedomestic tourism after the COVID-19 situation eases, said its President ChairatTrirattanajarasporn.
The campaign, to be implemented incollaboration with the Tourism and Sports Ministry and the Tourism Authority ofThailand (TAT), will promote new local products andattractions, especially those involving tourism communities, he said.
Chairat also said domestic tourism needs to be promoted for one to two yearswhile the market waits for foreign tourists to regain confidence.
In the initial phase, it is expected that people from China, the Republic ofKorea or ASEAN countries would return to Thailand, according to him.
“Thailand needs Chinese tourists as we recover,” Chairat added. “When thesituation becomes safe again, Chinese will return to Thailand as our country isnear. Moreover, the Chinese market has the capacity to expand.”
Meanwhile, the Tourism and Sports Ministry has an idea of providing long-staytour packages for foreign tourists who want to visit coronavirus-free areas.
TAT predicted that Thailand could receive only 16 million internationalvisitors in 2020, much lower than the target of 40 million set before the COVID-19outbreak. Tthe number of foreign visitors to Thailand this year are forecast todecline by 24 million, resulting in a loss of 1.9 trillion THB in revenue. Lastyear, the country welcomed a record 39.8 million foreign tourists.
The agency also estimated that the number of domestic trips in Thailand thisyear will reach only 60 million, far behind the target of 172 million setearlier and much lower than 167 million recorded in 2019.
Total revenue from foreign and domestic tourists may amount to only 1.12 trillionTHB, down 62.8 percent from 3.01 trillion THB last year.
Statistics showthat the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Thailand in the first quarter of202020 was only 6.7 million, down 38 percent year on year.
According to data from Thailand's Tourism and Sports Ministry, the country's tourismrevenue dropped nearly 40 percent in the first quarter of 2020 to 335 billionTHB (more than 10 billion USD), 222 billion THB lower than that of the sameperiod last year./.
VNA
