BANGKOK – The Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Thai Chambers of Commerce, in cooperation with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), are preparing a new project to promote secondary cities with economic potential in terms of trade, investment and tourism to become major cities.
The final outcome is that 10 provinces from all 5 regions were jointly selected for the pilot promotion, namely Phrae, Lampang, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Phanom, Sisaket, Chanthaburi, Ratchaburi, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Trang.
Although some provinces that are already major cities, such as Kanchanaburi, are of the opinion that the existing economic potential should be further expanded.
The project is to be launched in January 2024. Prime Minister and Finance Minister Srettha Thavisin will chair the press conference. This is in line with the government’s policy to promote tourism in order to bring the potential of all provinces to the global stage and stimulate the domestic tourism market.
The policy has four aspects: 1. promoting tourism in secondary cities, 2. promoting Thailand as a year-round high season destination, 3. accelerating the development of information services for tourists, and 4. increasing tourist spending per trip and increasing the length of stay to encourage tourists to stay longer. These are all important challenges for the revitalization of the tourism sector.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol, announced that tourism increased sharply in almost all groups of tourists between 18 and 24 December 2023, due to the consecutive holidays on Christmas Day.
A total of 796,808 foreign tourists arrived in Thailand, an increase of 120,303 from the previous week or 16.6 percent. The cumulative number of foreign tourists from 1 March to 24 December 2023 has also exceeded 27 million.
The increase in tourists during the Winter Holiday period at the end of the year in Europe resulted in a total of 796,808 foreign tourists entering the country in the past week.
The top five countries of origin for foreign tourists were Malaysia, China, Russia, South Korea, and India. The number of tourists from Malaysia, India, Russia, China and South Korea increased by 35.34 percent, 12.03 percent, 7.50 percent, 7.16 percent and 6.22 percent respectively compared to the previous week.
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