Govt targets B1.73trln revenue from tourism next year

The government has set the revenue target from tourism in 2023 at 1.73 trillion baht, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said on Monday.

Mr Anucha said the 1.73 trillion baht target was about 80% of the revenue generated  by tourism in 2019,  prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Of that amount, 970 billion baht would be from foreign visitors and 760 billion baht from domestic tourism.

In the best case scenario, total revenue from tourism in 2023 could reach 2.38 trillion baht - 1.5 trillion baht from foreign arrivals and 880 billion baht domestically.

The spokesman said the government was glad to see airlines adjusting their operations to suit with the number of tourists, which was expected to increase during the high season, from the 4th quarter this year into early next year.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) had forecast that Thai tourism would continue to grow. The agency believed in the last quarter (October-December) next year the number of tourists would be around 1.5 million per month.

The TAT would work with airlines to promote sales and marketing and to restore an atmosphere conducive to tourism.

"Since the government eased travel restrictions to re-open the country, from January to September this year more than 5 million foreign tourists have arrived in Thailand. There are expected to be about 1 million in September alone. By the end of 2022, the number of tourist arrivals is expected to reach 10 million baht in total," Mr Anucha said.