BANGKOK, March 29 (TNA) — Tourism was stable in the first quarter of this year on domestic and global economic slowdowns and thick fine dust but situations will improve in the second quarter, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand.
TCT president Chairat Trirattanajarasporn gave the overview on tourism in the first quarter and the tourism outlook for this year, based on the council’s survey on tourism operators’ confidence in the first quarter.
He said that the confidence index stood at 98 points which was close to the figure in the previous quarter.
Apart from local and international economic slowdowns, Mr Chairat mentioned that tourism operators were also concerned about continuous baht appreciation, low inflation, the serious problem of fine dust in some areas and a 16% decline in purchasing power.
However, he said that some tourism operators remained optimistic for the second quarter and the whole 2019 on growing services of low-cost airlines and new promotions from the Tourism Authority of Thailand. He expected the arrivals of 40.64 million foreign tourists this year, up 6.17% from last year. They would spend 2.20 trillion baht, up 9.36%, Mr Chairat said.
Without an untoward situation, he expected 9.28 million visitors in the second quarter, up 4.62% year-on-year. That will comprise 2.66 million visitors from Southeast Asia, up 4.31%, 4.03 million from East Asia, up 3.07%, and 1.15 million from Europe, up by 3.6%. (TNA)
