tourism Restart in Thailand

After recording several months of consecutive declines since the beginning of the year following the demonstrations, bombings and street violence, tourism is beginning to return to a normal situation in Thailand.

The first quarter of 2014, international tourist arrivals were down by 5.85% to 6.6 million, while tourism revenues were down by 4.02% to 311 billion baht. But since the coup, and especially after the lifting of the curfew, first in the main tourist areas and in Bangkok, tourists are beginning to return to Thailand.

But in the first five months of the year, Thailand welcomed a total of 10.36 million tourists. Arrivals from Europe accuse the strongest growth with 3.09 million visitors (7.55%), including Russia (10.34%), the UK (7.02%) and France ( 8.76%).

Mr Thawatchai Arunyik, Governor of TAT said:

"This is excellent news indeed for everyone, for tourists and for local tourism operators and hoteliers, and one can not help but continue to proclaim to the world that it is always the status quo in Thailand and that tourism has not been affected by the political situation. "

The declaration of the Governor is supported by official statistics of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, which show that major airports outside Bangkok showed good growth in the number of international tourist arrivals from January to May 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.

Chiang Mai Airport: 77.61% + 57.20% Krabi, Phuket 5.69% and Samui record growth of 257.11%.

For the full year 2014, the TAT expects the country will host 25.6 million tourists, generating a revenue of 1.23 trillion baht (USD 38.4 billion), slightly less than the 26 million affected in 2013, and back to the target of 28 million originally planned by the TAT.

Since 15 June, the TAT has also given the departure of the largest annual trade event "Amazing Thailand Grand Sale," which runs until September 30 and includes more than 15 000 in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hat Yai , Pattaya, Hua Hin and Koh Samui offering special offers and bargains for tourists.

Tourism is a direct contribution to GDP of Thailand 7.3% and 2 million jobs. The indirect contribution of tourism to the Thai economy is 16.7% of GDP and 4.8 million jobs.