Despite the image of the five southernmost provinces as being unsafe amid the recent fireworks explosion in Narathiwat, Songkhla has still been experiencing a stable inflow of 10,000 Malaysian tourists per day.
Songchai Mungprasithichai, president of the Songkhla Tourism Promotion Association, said the province has not noticed any slowdown in Malaysian arrivals, given that travellers from the neighbouring country have become accustomed to incidents in Thailand's southernmost provinces.
Mr Songchai said the fireworks explosion at a warehouse last week and a recent car bomb in Narathiwat only affected transportation in the area, but had not disrupted the flow of Malaysian tourists.
There are still large groups of Malaysian tourists entering via the Sadao and Betong checkpoints to the major southern tourist destinations, such as Hat Yai in Songkhla and Betong in Yala.
Mr Songchai said tourism operators are optimistic about the situation, with 10,000 Malaysian tourists crossing the border for travel, he said.
However, the new government should focus on solving the decades-old negative image of the South in order to stimulate tourism growth in this area and the whole southern region, he said.
Siwat Suwanwong, vice-president of the Songkhla provincial office at the Thai Hotels Association, said the hotel occupancy rate at the weekend was healthy at 85%, mostly driven by Malaysian tourists.
He said Songkhla is now in the process of exiting the red zone. At present, it has four districts designated as being in the red zone, which has discouraged international tour groups since travel insurance cannot cover any incidents occurring in those areas.
If more areas were unlocked, the province would be able to attract more large events and travellers from other countries in addition to Malaysia, Mr Siwat said.
Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor for Asia and the South Pacific at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the agency expected at least 4 million Malaysian tourists this year.
During the first seven months, Thailand recorded more than 2.4 million Malaysian visitors.
TAT set a strategy to attract Malaysian tourists from Songkhla to other southern provinces with beach destinations, and increase direct flights from Malaysia to Chiang Mai and other provinces in other regions.
However, the plan to operate chartered flights between Kunming in China and Hat Yai has been postponed from July until October due to the delay in the formation of the next government.
Mr Songchai said he was unsure of the sustainability of this plan because there might not be sufficient local demand to fill up outbound flights to China, compared to inbound demand from Chinese travellers.