The board of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has revised down its target for tourism-related income next year, citing concerns about economic problems and the political situation after the charter referendum.
The tourism agency is cutting its income projection for local tourism from 1 trillion baht to 950 billion baht and revenue from overall tourism from 2.89 trillion baht to 2.84 trillion baht.
TAT Deputy Governor Sugree Sithivanich said the new revenue figure for local tourism would indicate a 10-percent growth.
The TAT board disagreed with an earlier 16-percent growth projection by management for domestic tourism because the board did not see a clear economic recovery.
TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said the board wanted promotion campaigns in 2017 to focus more on quality tourists.
“For local tourists, we plan to encourage three tourist groups to travel across regions. The target groups are females, young tourists and retirees,” he said.
The period of their vacations and the number of their activities must increase to meet the revenue target of 950 billion baht.
Tourism-related income from foreign visitors is still expected at 1.89 trillion baht, up by 9.8 percent, based on the projected number of foreign tourist arrivals of 36 million next year compared with 34 million this year.
The government will assist with spending-promotion measures, including a tax reduction for people spending at restaurants and possibly on local products, to boost income for local communities.
TAT Deputy Governor Srisuda Wanapinyosak, who supervises the Asia and South Pacific markets, said the TAT expected 10.8 million Chinese tourists to visit Thailand next year. The number will show a 3.8-percent rise from this year and lead to 574 billion baht income, up 9.1 percent from this year.
The TAT will also focus more on the Asean market so that the country would not overly depend on Chinese tourists, she said.
The TAT expected 9.3 million to 10 million Asean tourists to visit Thailand next year, a number close to arrivals from China. It wanted the Asean market to generate 292 billion baht worth of tourism-related income, showing an increase of 11.3 percent.
Australia will pose the greatest challenge for the TAT next year, because the value of the Australian dollar has depreciated by 30 percent and the number of low-cost flights between Australia and Bali rose to 300 a week.
Consequently the number of Australian visitors to Thailand will fall in the second half of this year.