Thailand is hoping to attract 800,000 visitors from the UK in 2023, twice as many as the 400,000 expected this year, as a major drive for the country to achieve overall tourism revenue of 1.73 trillion baht next year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said yesterday.
TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said Thailand is on track to meet its target of 400,000 British visitors this year, but next year’s outlook remains uncertain due to many factors, including the yet-to-rebound airline industry.
“We have managed to boost winter slots by 74% from the summer slots,” Mr Yuthasak told the Bangkok Post on the sidelines of the World Travel Market (WTM) being held in London from Nov 7-9
Tourists from the UK rank top among European visitors. At its peak, Thailand drew one million tourists from the UK per year, he said.
“At least, we aim to achieve 80% of the one million UK visitors a year we used to have in the pre-Covid period or 800,000 visitors next year, double our target of 400,000 this year,” Mr Yuthasak noted.
Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, deputy governor of the TAT, said as of Nov 6, Thailand had welcomed over 7.9 million international arrivals this year, contributing tourism revenue of around 422 billion baht.
Of the overall number, Thailand welcomed more than 300,000 arrivals from the UK, generating more than 23 billion baht.
“This figure is promising because during the high season, around 1.5 million tourists are expected to arrive each month,” he told the press conference on Tuesday.
“For Europe and the Middle East, we are anticipating continued travel growth due to the increase in Middle Eastern tourists, especially from Saudi Arabia, and flight resumption from Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey, helped by the strong US dollar.”
