Revised 2008 targets set – optimism rules

New Thai tourism and sports minister, Weerasak Kowsurat, plans to boost the revenue from this year’s targeted 15.9 million foreign visitors to 800 billion baht, instead of the 600 billion baht target recently announced by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Reports also said Mr. Weerasak, 43, who has a master’s degree in law from Harvard University, has vowed to set a higher domestic tourism revenue target than the current 385 billion announced. Approximately 83 million trips are taken annually by domestic tourists. In addition, he is aiming for a double digit growth contribution from tourism revenue to Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product. This represents a growth of more than 10 per cent compared to TAT’s original target of 5.6 per cent for this year.

His plans call for more quality tourists from emerging markets such as China, India and Russia in line with the global tourism trends toward intra-regional and short-haul travel. He is also hoping to encourage more flights, to collaborate more with related state agencies and to amend present laws hindering the growth in tourism. The new minister has held several advisory and deputy-ministerial positions in previous governments, including the first Thaksin administration.

Source: TTG