Mr. Tanes Petsuwan, Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications, Tourism Authority of Thailand, delivered the following speech at Thailand Briefing Networking Lunch, ITB 2018, Berlin, Germany, on Friday, 9 March 2018.
Sawasdee khrap and good afternoon.
Distinguished guests, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen. Before I start my presentation I think you’ve heard the tourism policy from His Excellency, therefore I would like to point out two main issues.
First one is the Thai tourism performance in 2017. Secondly is the marketing and communications direction in 2018. In 2017, Thailand welcomed 35 million visitors generating a total income of 1.82 trillion Baht. It is a truly remarkable achievement that the entire Thai tourism industry can be proud of. It is a tribute to the diversity of our tourism offerings and Thai local experiences that have captured the imagination of the global travelling community.
– China is now our leading source market with arrivals of 9.80 million visitors. Other top markets are Malaysia, South Korea, Lao PDR. and Japan.
– Arrivals from Europe have historically played a major role in the development of Thai tourism. In 2017,
European visitor arrivals totalled more than 6.51 million, generating 480 million Baht in revenue.
The top five highest source markets in Europe in 2017 were Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and East Europe.
The highest growth came from the Russia market, registering 23.50 percent over 2016, which reflects a strongly rebounding economy. Another interesting market is Eastern Europe, which grew by 17.40 percent. This is a positive sign after we opened our office in Prague in late 2016. In 2018, TAT has set a growth target of eight percent in tourism revenue from the international market. We are targeting a tourism revenue increase of 7.29 percent over 2017 from the European market.
For the marketing efforts in Europe, in 2017, we had…
