Bangkok (VNA) – The number of foreign arrivals to Thailand hit a recordhigh of 3.5 million in December 2017, jumping 16 percent year on year.
The Thai tourism ministry’s Permanent Secretary Pongpanu Svetarundra also predicteda fresh high in January, which is the traditional peak season for tourism.
The Thai Government is targeting 37 million international arrivals in 2018 andearn 3 trillion THB (94 billion USD) in revenue from domestic and foreigntourists combined, he noted. That is worth one fifth of the country’s grossdomestic product.
Tourism has been given special attention when export, key motive of Thaieconomy, fell in three consecutive years until 2016.
DuringJanuary-November in 2017, Thailand’s exports surged 10 percent despite itscurrency rose 9 percent. Thai exporters said that the strong baht resulted in aloss of 350 billion THB (10.86 billion USD) in the country’s export revenuelast year.-VNA