Thailand targets 28 m tourist visitors in 2014

Friday, 19 July 2013 05:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set a 2014 target of 28.01 million international tourist arrivals, generating estimated foreign exchange revenue of 1.326 trillion Baht, up 13% over 2013.

For the domestic market, TAT has set a target of 136.8 million trips, generating estimated of 700 billion Baht for tourism income, up by 9% over 2013. This means that for the first time in the history of Thai tourism, the TAT is targetting total earnings of two trillion Baht from both domestic and foreign visitors. “Finalising the 2014 marketing plan has been a particularly challenging exercise in view of all the phenomenal and monumental changes taking place both worldwide, regionally, and locally within Thailand, in customer demographics as well as the way the industry does business,” said TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni. “Because Thailand is blessed with an unmatched geographical advantage, and numerous other strengths which have served us well over the years, we had to find ways of adapting our strategies to take advantage of our strengths and address some of the looming weaknesses. We think this plan does that.” Some of the targets of the 2014 marketing plan are: To raise awareness of Thailand as a ‘Quality Destination’ with a broad diversity of experiences that contribute to visitors’ ‘happiness’; to balance the source markets and refocus the customer segments to high-end markets; to reduce visitor congestion in the popular destinations, better balance the distribution of visitors nationwide and boost connectivity with AEC countries; balance the tourism season by promoting travel in the low season and promoting green tourism in order to lower the environmental impact of high visitor arrivals.