Thailand Targets Eight Million European Tourists for Record 2024

[snoop1130]

 

Thailand's Tourism and Sports Ministry set a goal of attracting eight million European tourists in 2024 to push total long-haul visitors to an unprecedented 11 million. Announced by Tourism and Sports Minister Sorawong Thienthong at the World Travel Market 2024 in London, the plan centres on collaboration with airlines and foreign ambassadors to restore international flights fully.

 

Sorawong, speaking at the prestigious event, highlighted ongoing efforts to enhance Thai tourism's appeal, including investing in infrastructure and streamlining visa processes. Post-event, he plans to engage with ambassadors from key European and Middle Eastern markets and airline representatives to strategise for the 2025 high season.

 

The ministry is working with the Transport and Finance Ministries on potential subsidies like fuel price and tax reductions for airlines. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) reports anticipations of welcoming 9.6 million long-haul tourists this year, aiming for over 896 billion baht in revenue with next year’s target.

 

With Thailand's participation at the WTM, 42 tourism operators engaged in an expected 950 business meetings, potentially generating over 898 million baht. Princess Ubolratana supported efforts by promoting sustainable tourism initiatives.

 

Local tourism expert, Nithi Subhongsang of Nutty’s Adventures, stressed the importance of maintaining policy continuity and promoting lesser-known destinations to prevent overtourism. UK-based tour operator Sam Collins pointed out UK's ranking as the third most popular origin for tourists, suggesting enhanced rail infrastructure and support for airlines.

 

THAI's commercial officer, Korakot Chatasingha, confirmed plans to position Bangkok as a regional tourism hub, with increased flight frequencies and Belgium added to the schedule. By 2025, THAI aims to sustain this frequency with its fleet of 88 aircraft, reinforcing Thailand's commitment to becoming a top global travel destination.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-11-07

 

 

[IrishInThailand]

A lot of Thai Baht flowing in !!

[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand's Tourism and Sports Ministry set a goal of attracting eight million European tourists in 2024 to push total long-haul visitors to an unprecedented 11 million.

More targets... mostly for the bar girls, trannies, taxi mafia, scammers and rip-off vendors.

[nobodysfriend]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

set a goal of attracting eight million European tourists in 2024 to push total long-haul visitors to an unprecedented 11 million.

 

Always more and more ... they do not know the word " enough " ...

Money , money is all they think about ...

Edited 14 hours ago by nobodysfriend

[kinyara]

This event and information won't go down well with the naysayers who falsely claim European tourism to Thailand is slowly declining, or that TAT do nothing to promote Thailand to the European markets.

[soalbundy]

Europeans must be better off financially than they are telling us.

[10baht]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

By 2025, THAI aims to sustain this frequency with its fleet of 88 aircraft, reinforcing Thailand's commitment to becoming a top global travel destinat

Get a life, educate the uneducated, provide real job training, start industries where you produce useful products. Stop the burning in the north. Cut the tax BS talk for the golden goose = retirees who pay rent, buy local product, buy cars, condos , who already pay VAT. Seriously until the get "easy" money from tourists mentality is dead and buried the Thai economy will never get to 1st world status.

[spidermike007]

Quantity over quality works well, if you are selling two dollar items at a swap meet. Attracting a higher number of lower end tourists, who do not spend alot, benefits very few. It just creates congestion and lowers the quality of life for everyone. The goons in charge are incapable of learning. 

[itsari]

I seem to see many young men wandering around town stoned and riding scooters erratically the last few months. 

The availability of drugs is attracting many drug enthusiasts.

I can also say that many Europeans are dealing in drugs .

I can well see why Thailand  expect 8 million tourists from Europe .

[Jiggo]

Hope they go to Phuket, well most of them.

[MalcolmB]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Quantity over quality works well, if you are selling two dollar items at a swap meet. Attracting a higher number of lower end tourists, who do not spend alot, benefits very few. It just creates congestion and lowers the quality of life for everyone. The goons in charge are incapable of learning. 

Like a broken record. 
 

You seem to think you are better than us Europeans.

 

You just voted in a felon, sexual pest who doesn’t pay his bills.

 

Maybe it is time to get off your high horse. 

[sambum]

3 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

 

Always more and more ... they do not know the word " enough " ...

Money , money is all they think about ...

 

"The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) reports anticipations of welcoming 9.6 million long-haul tourists this year, aiming for over 896 billion baht in revenue with next year’s target."

 

Whenever you see the words "Tourist Authority Of Thailand (TAT)", you will notice that they are always followed by words like "expects", "aims for",  "anticipates", "hopes for", "expects" and then some figures that are wild "guesstimations".

 

What makes me splutter in my morning coffee is that these posts are often accompanied by other posts stating that resorts like Phuket are complaining about having too many tourists!

 

Regarding attracting 8 million tourists from Europe, I think someone should remind TAT that people in the likes of the UK will be struggling to pay their food and Utility bills in the winter of 2024, and holidays are probably the last thing they are planning for! Or maybe they are "anticipating" millions of Russians and Ukrainians escaping from the war?

 

"In the Winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive" (The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down")

Edited 10 hours ago by sambum

[harryviking]

Unless they do something about the air quality, I guess soon there will be a decline in tourists coming! I do find an unhealthy environment very attractive----😣

[Jonathan Swift]

36 minutes ago, MalcolmB said:

Like a broken record. 
 

You seem to think you are better than us Europeans.

 

You just voted in a felon, sexual pest who doesn’t pay his bills.

 

Maybe it is time to get off your high horse. 

How do you know how he voted? Speaking of high horse. Project much? No decent person voted for Trump. The problem is that there are too many ignorant and hateful people who did vote for him. If someone is living here it's obvious they're no longer part of what's going on in the US. The reason I chose to live here is largely b ecause of what the US has become. What you're doing is inventing a fight where there is none because you interpret comments as personal attacks when they are anything but. 

Edited 10 hours ago by Jonathan Swift

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, MalcolmB said:

Like a broken record. 
 

You seem to think you are better than us Europeans.

 

You just voted in a felon, sexual pest who doesn’t pay his bills.

 

Maybe it is time to get off your high horse. 

I have no idea where that is coming from, definitely sounds like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I love Europeans, I love Europe, and I was insinuating that the lack of European tourists has been a damaging element to Thai tourism.

 

 I didn't vote for Trump so I have no idea where that's coming from, everybody on this forum knows how much I dislike the man. 

[phetphet]

I flew back from the UK last week and the flight was full. Mainly tourists.

November always seemed to be a quieter month, being between October half term holidays and Christmas, but here in Samui it still looks pretty busy.

 

This constant increase in tourist number isn't sustainable. As constant development ruins the more beautiful places, there will be less attraction for many tourists to come here. Not everyone is a monger.

 

 

 

[norsurin]

6 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

 

Always more and more ... they do not know the word " enough " ...

Money , money is all they think about ...

They learning the young ones that money is allways number one.So im not surprised that this is the only thing the thaigirls want.

[kinyara]

21 minutes ago, phetphet said:

I flew back from the UK last week and the flight was full. Mainly tourists.

November always seemed to be a quieter month, being between October half term holidays and Christmas, but here in Samui it still looks pretty busy.

 

This constant increase in tourist number isn't sustainable. As constant development ruins the more beautiful places, there will be less attraction for many tourists to come here. Not everyone is a monger.

 

 

 

 

You're assuming that there will be a constant increase, numbers are not even back to 2019 levels. As we've seen in the past any number of factors can negatively impact tourism in any given year. Global financial factors, health crisis, conflicts. etc etc.

 

Also worth remembering the higher growth markets are closer to home and typically of shorter stay duration so it may not reflect a massive rise in  numbers here at any one time. 

 

The Indian and Chinese markets have increased the lower low season months without dramatically increasing the traditional high season months.

 

[BigStar]

6 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

 

Always more and more ... they do not know the word " enough " ...

Money , money is all they think about ...

 

If they said "enough," then our ace ANF Economists would loudly proclaim the coming collapse of the Thai economy, the emptying of the cities, and the return of Thais to the rice fields to eke out their subsistence.

 

Eventually the market will find an equilibrium, as markets do.

Edited 8 hours ago by BigStar

[BigStar]

2 hours ago, sambum said:

Whenever you see the words "Tourist Authority Of Thailand (TAT)", you will notice that they are always followed by words like "expects", "aims for",  "anticipates", "hopes for", "expects" and then some figures that are wild "guesstimations".

 

As with Tourist Authorities throughout the world. Tourism numbers can't be precisely known in advance, for reasons that should be obvious.

 

2 hours ago, sambum said:

What makes me splutter in my morning coffee is that these posts are often accompanied by other posts stating that resorts like Phuket are complaining about having too many tourists!

 

Best sputter over all the sneers by posters on the forum. Hypocrites all, as they'll accept and bless the figures if later years show a decline, so they can exaggerate and rejoice in the magnitude of the decline, demonstrating Thailand's just punishment.

 

2 hours ago, sambum said:

Regarding attracting 8 million tourists from Europe, I think someone should remind TAT that people in the likes of the UK will be struggling to pay their food and Utility bills in the winter of 2024, and holidays are probably the last thing they are planning for! Or maybe they are "anticipating" millions of Russians and Ukrainians escaping from the war?

 

Already factored in. And they know quite well how Europe is defined and technically doesn't include the Islamic Republic of the UK.

 

 

 

[Cabradelmar]

Blah, blah blah... Had 26 million at the end of Oct (that's a run rate of 2.6 million a month), and how they want to hit their 36 million goal (and bring in 5 million a month for the rest of the year).... They will report whatever they want to make themselves look good. 🥱 

[Purdey]

Like a broken record. The tourism industry contributed 2.78% to GDP in 2022, and 7.24% in both direct and indirect contributions. Whereas manufacturing contributed 35%.

I know where I would focus.

 

Forgot, they need people uneducated and unskilled to work as labor for rich people.

 

[BigStar]

37 minutes ago, Cabradelmar said:

how they want to hit their 36 million goal (and bring in 5 million a month for the rest of the year)..

 

High season brings in the most tourists, above the average number. They didn't say they would definitely achieve the goal. A goal is just that: goal.

 

39 minutes ago, Cabradelmar said:

They will report whatever they want to make themselves look good. 🥱 

 

No. What did they report for 2020 and 2021? Did that look good?

 

 

 

[BigStar]

43 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Like a broken record.

 

Tourist authorities in every country have the same job. They do it year after year. We understand this in, say, the Islamic Republic of the UK, but NOT in Thailand. Why is that?

 

44 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Whereas manufacturing contributed 35%.

I know where I would focus.

 

And you'd just lose billions in revenue, having little knowledge of economics. Why not do both, as Thailand is?

 

Thailand approves $2 bln worth of investments in data centres, electronics

 

46 minutes ago, Purdey said:

 

Forgot, they need people uneducated and unskilled to work as labor for rich people.

 

 

Rubbish class warfare you've imported. Next.

 

[BritScot]

4 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

Like a broken record. 
 

You seem to think you are better than us Europeans.

 

You just voted in a felon, sexual pest who doesn’t pay his bills.

 

Maybe it is time to get off your high horse. 

OMG! What dribble.  I suppose it is the twisted bitter leftist in you that  oozes venom from every pore! I'm a very proud Brit/Scot who would love a PM like Trump. A man who loves his country, takes no pay and has had to fight every day for the past 10 years when he could have tucked tail and lived out his life in luxury.  Thailand always comes out with crazy wish lists.  An 8 million or an 8 fold increase but anything is possible when you just pluck figures out of the air. Maybe Thailand should invest in it's infrastructure first. Also stop their xenophobic rants.

[PingRoundTheWorld]

It will probably go easier if they don't have hordes of Indians, Chinese, and Middle Easterners clogging everything. It really is becoming annoying. Totally different demographics that do not go well together. It's only November and high season is already annoying.