Tourism leaders are projecting 18 million foreign arrivals in 2023, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

Promising signs from the Asian and South Pacific markets have been seen for the final two months this year, with 15,778 flights featuring 2.87 million seats confirmed.

TAT's Thanet Phetsuwan said Vietnam was the fastest growing market in terms of flight resumption at 89% of pre-Covid capacity, he said.

As of Oct 30, tourists from Southeast Asia, South Asia and South Pacific tallied 4.1 million this year, accounting for 54% of total visitors, while tourists from East Asian markets, most of them just reopened, followed at 831,742, representing 11%.

Despite travel restrictions, the number of Chinese visitors totalled 191,742 as business visitors and students were allowed to take outbound trips, said Mr Thanet.

While China remains an important market for tourism, Thailand should not count on it or make early predictions on whether visitors from that country will return next year, he said.

"For China, if the zero-Covid policy is prolonged until next year, we might see only a gradual resumption of visitors from certain groups, similar to this year."

He said the TAT has to accelerate other potential markets, such as India, to achieve the target.