Chumpol: 14m arrivals still possible

Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa is still confident that foreign arrivals to Thailand will exceed 14 million by the end of this year.

Total foreign tourist arrivals via all checkpoints in the first 10 months of this year surpassed 11 million, with an improving trend of arrivals in the third quarter as well, said Mr Chumpol.

"I'm quite sure that tourist arrivals this year will certainly reach 13.5 million. But if Tourism Authority of Thailand encourages all overseas offices to speed up the promotional campaigns in the rest of the year, arrivals could reach 14 million as expected," he added.

During the first nine months, foreign arrivals totalled 9.89 million, declining 12.1% year-on-year. The drop reflected reduced travel demand because of the global recession, as well as concerns, particularly among Asians, about security in Thailand in light of high political tensions earlier in the year.

However, Mr Chumpol said arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport showed an improvement in September with foreign visitors surpassing 30,000 per day for 12 days. The figure surpassed 30,000 for 20 days in October, and this continued in November. The latest figure was 32,014 visitors on Nov 18.

In September, foreign tourist arrivals at Suvarnabhumi totalled 1.04 million, up 16.88% from 890,066 in the same period last year, and the figure in October was 862,263, up 14.97%.

Mr Chumpol said the ministry monitored the figures every day and asked the TAT to step up promotions for the rest of this year and through the first quarter of 2010.

The ministry received budget approval, as part of the government's stimulus package, early this month.

Wichai Srikwan, the chairman of the TAT board, said it had already approved the 2010 action plan for the agency with a budget of 4.55 billion baht, down from 4.91 billion in the 2009 fiscal year.

The action plan covers a promotional budget for overseas marketing of 2.49 billion baht, accounting for 54.7% of the total budget, while the domestic marketing budget is 1.33 billion baht.

Kongkrit Hiranyakit, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said his members would be very surprised if foreign visitors to Thailand reached 13.5 million this year.

"There will be politically motivated protests again by the end of this month and this will probably have some effects on local tourism," he said.

The council projects 10 million foreign visitors this year while the TAT targets 13 million and the Thai Travel Agents Association (ATTA) forecasts 12 million.