Officials from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) did their best at the recent ASEAN Tourism Forum to convince participants that overseas visitor numbers were on the increase.

“Amazing Thailand is staging an amazing recovery,” said TAT deputy governor for marking communications, Juthaporn Rerngronasa.

The deputy director reported that tactical marketing campaigns mounted by the TAT and special offers made by hotels around the country were beginning to show results.

She did say, however, that international visitor arrivals in January so far have been 20 per cent below the same period last year. “It’s coming back, bit by bit,” the tourism official added.

The tourism authority will launch road shows around North Asia in February, in an attempt to boost tourism in markets that have been among the worst performing so far this year.

The most recent figures on the numbers of tourists handled by members of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) show the largest decline in 10 years.

ATTA said that its members handling tourists arriving at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in 2008 report a 17.03 per cent drop off in business - from 2,495,809 clients in 2007 to 2,070,666 in 2008.

In 2008, ATTA member companies saw a decrease of 425,143 arrivals over the previous year.

The decline in tourist arrivals began in August and then accelerated when anti-government demonstrators occupied and shut down Bangkok’s two main airports for 10 days at the end of November.

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.tourismthailand.org