Tourism Ministry eyes Bt1.5 trillion revenue in 2022
Revenue from tourism in 2022 is expected to reach 1.5 trillion baht after the Cabinet meeting earlier this week has approved the proposal to make 2022 the year of promoting Thailand’s tourism, said Tourism and Sports minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan on Thursday.
The ministry has also proposed the campaign "Visit Thailand Year 2022 : Amazing New Chapters", to be spearheaded by Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), to attract more foreign visitors to the country.
“The campaign aims to distribute tourism revenues to all five regions, with central locations in Phuket, Pattaya, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya,” said Pipat. “We will use Thai traditional performances by local artists along with performances by famous guests from overseas to attract visitors. The campaign will be sponsored by both the government and private sector.”
Pipat also added that the meeting of Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on November 12 had approved the setting up of Centre for Emergency Situation Related to Tourism and Sports. “This new centre will be a central agency that provide solutions to domestic and foreign tourists in Thailand who run into problems or need assistance,” he added. “It will be headed by the permanent secretary for tourism and sports.”
TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn added that since the government has allowed vaccinated foreign visitors to land in Thailand from November 1, the number of foreign tourists has been rising continually. “Emirates airline recently switched the airplane flying between Dubai and Bangkok from Boeing 777, which has a capacity of 200 passengers to Airbus A380, which can carry 500 passengers,” he said. “This shows that the demand to enter Thailand by foreigners is now climbing.”
“TAT set the revenue target from tourism in 2022 at 1.5 trillion baht, or about 50 per cent of tourism revenue in 2019, before the Covid-19 situation,” he added. “In 2023, we set the target at 80 per cent of 2019 revenue, or 2.4 trillion baht.”