2007 target is 13.8 mln tourists

2007 target is 13.8 mln tourists

Pattaya (dpa)
Thailand hopes to attract 13.8 million foreign tourists this year, after falling short of the same target in 2005 in the wake of the December 26 tsunami, a senior tourism official forecast on Sunday.

"Last year we targeted 13.8 million but unfortunately, because of the tsunami, we were only able to attract 12 million," said Juthamas Siriwan, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

"This year again the target is 13.8 million visitors, and 79.3 million domestic trips, which together should generate about $20 billion," Juthamas told a press conference in Pattaya where Thailand is hosting the 55th annual meeting of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

The annual PATA meeting has gathered 1,141 delegates, including ministers and vice minister of tourism from 11 countries, to discuss new travel trends in the Asia Pacific region.

The TAT governor claimed that Thailand's tourism sector had already witnessed impressive growth in the first quarter of 2006, with arrivals up 37 per cent in January, 30 per cent in February and 20 per cent in March, compared with the same months last year when international arrivals took a dive in response to the December 26, 2004, tsunami that claimed more than 5,000 lives, half of them foreign tourists, in Thailand's six provinces rimming the Andaman Sea.

"When there was the tsunami last year, I thought that was the end of the tourism industry but we recovered very fast, in only six months," said Juthamas.

The tsunami struck some of Thailand's most popular beach resorts along the Andaman Sea coast, including Phuket, Phi Phi and Phang Nga.

Thailand's tourism sector, the country's main foreign exchange earner, has been hurt by a variety of negative factor over the past five years including the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China and Hong Kong, the avian influenza epidemic of 2004 and the December 26 tsunami.

This year, Thailand's reputation as a secure destination was slightly tarnished by daily street protests in Bangkok calling for the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, although Juthamsa downplayed the impact on tourist arrivals.

"The demonstrations were peaceful, so the impact was only on incentive travel from Singapore and China," said Juthamas. "From Singapore we lost 5,000, and China 10,000, but now it's come back."

Incentive tours are rewards given to top performing employees by their employers.

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