TAT to focus on ecotourism

India is one of the top 10 source markets for Thailand tourism, claimed Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), on his recent visit to the country. He also shared the board’s plans to achieve the target of 2 million arrivals from

India remains a prime source market for Thailand with inbound arrivals growing to the tune of 20 per cent. Yuthasak

Supasorn, Governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand, says, “As one of our top 10 markets, India recorded a growth of about 20 per cent last year. We welcomed around 1.5 million Indians last year and hope to achieve our target of 2 million by the end of this year.” Supasorn believes that since India is among the fastest growing economies of the world, many of them are travelling to Thailand, where their needs are being catered to by the service providers. “People in Thailand can cater to the needs of Indians not only for weddings but also for leisure. Hence, we believe that Thailand has everything that Indians want.” He insisted that they are also travellers from India to Thailand. “We want to promote the According to statistics, over 70 million Indian people have passports but only 22 million are visiting Thailand. We want India to Thailand.” For 2019, the tourism board will be focusing on its existing campaign ‘Open to new shades of Thailand’. “We will continue to focus on the existing theme to introduce local experiences and a number of new destinations to Indians. We want to introduce Indians to destinations including Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and sea-side destinations like Phuket and Samui island.” Claiming that MiCE is an important segment from India to Thailand. “We work with Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) in order to increase the number of MiCE to Thailand this year.” In fact, Thailand is set to receive a good number of tourists from India in the next few months owing to the extension of visa-fee waiver till April 30, 2019. Speaking on the extension, Supasorn, said, “Thailand will always welcome international arrivals, especially from India, because when we accept visa-on-arrival, one of two countries from which we We believe that until the end of April, we’d see a number of Indians visiting Thailand.” Other segments the country is focusing on include senior citizen travel, culinary tourism as well as ecotourism and voluntourism. “Voluntourism is one of our major focuses this year because Thailand became the chairman of ASEAN, and TAT is set to propose ecotourism as the ASEAN,” he shared.

We want to promote the first-time traveller to Thailand. According to statistics, over 70 million Indian people have passports but only 22 million are visiting Thailand