THAILAND. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) expects tourist arrivals this year to be around last year’s level of 10.8 million, after having revised the forecast a number times due to uncertain events such as the SARS outbreak.
Phornsiri Mahoharn, a TAT assistant governor, said the new forecast came amid signs of a rebound in travel industries and expectations that the high tourist season would have an earlier start than usual.
“Normally, the peak season starts in November but with a large event like the Apec (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) summit, tourists and delegates to the summit are expected to boost the number of arrivals,” Phornsiri said in an address at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart 2003 in Singapore last week..
She said the number of tourist arrivals to the country had returned almost to normal levels with only a -1.1% drop registered in August compared with the same period last year.
However, TAT said it has concerns over continued limited flight capacity, which has prompted the Authority to promote Thailand in countries such as Malaysia or Singapore where visitors can travel to the country by land or sea.
