TAT hopes to get closer to pre-Covid times in tourism revenue earnings by 2024

As part of its plan, it aims to generate 1.92 trillion baht from 35 million foreign tourists and another 1.08 trillion baht from its “Thais Travelling in Thailand” campaign targeting 200 million local trips.

On Monday, TAT announced its “Direction for Promoting the Tourism Market in 2023” at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. This “direction” was devised after three days of brainstorming and strategy planning earlier in the week.

TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said the agency hopes to generate 3 trillion baht in income this year, much like the amount generated in 2019 before the arrival of Covid-19.

However, if the international market only recovers to 94% of the pre-Covid level, TAT will have to stimulate the domestic market to achieve its target of 3 trillion baht in revenue.

The tourism sector is currently facing several challenges, such as the global economic recession, inflation, rising interest rates, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, high oil prices leading to expensive airfares, and most importantly, international flights having resumed only 70%. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) estimates that international flight numbers will recover a bit more in the fourth quarter of next year and should return to 100% in 2025, Yuthasak said.

TAT also presented three scenarios on the path of total recovery in 2024.

The first scenario is generating 3 trillion baht in tourism revenue, which would indicate a 100% recovery. This would include 1.92 trillion baht from 35 million foreign tourists and 1.08 trillion baht from 200 million domestic trips.

The second scenario is a 90% recovery resulting in an income of 2.74 trillion baht, comprising 1.74 trillion baht from 32 million foreign tourists and 1 trillion baht from 185 million domestic trips.

The third, and worst-case scenario, is an 80% recovery with a total income of 2.4 trillion baht, with 1.54 trillion baht from 28 million foreign tourists and 860 billion baht from 158 million local trips.

TAT reckons next year, Thailand can expect 25.8 million foreigners to take short-haul fights and contribute 1.2 trillion baht in revenue. This includes 12.48 million tourists from East Asia, 10.51 million from Asean countries, 2.1 million from South Asia, and 787,000 from Oceania.

Meanwhile, Thailand is expected to draw 9.2 million visitors from long-haul markets like Europe, Africa, Central and North America. They are expected to contribute 721 billion baht as long-haul tourists typically stay longer and spend more on average.

The long-haul market has also shown a trend of surpassing the initial target of 7 million tourists this year, with as many as 8 million landing on Thai soil in the first half of this year.

Russia has been the biggest market, with 789,000 of the targeted 1 million showing up in the first half.

Hence, TAT plans to double its Russian target by increasing the number of regular and chartered flights. Besides, Russian tourists are known for being big spenders.

Similarly, the number of Indian tourists is rising. Thai Airways flies 70 flights per week to India, and data from the Indian travel website “ClearTrip” shows that flights booked from India to Bangkok have surged by 270% in the first six months this year compared to the same period in 2019.

Based on this, TAT believes there will be 1.6 million Indians visiting Thailand this year.

The Asian Development Bank’s May report indicated that India may outpace China in outbound travel growth.

The bank said the travel and tourism industry is vital to Southeast Asian nations. Before Covid, the tourism industry generated 12% of the GDP and employed over 40 million people.