March 16, 2009
Bangkok (ASTV Manager Online) – It was forecast that overseas travel market would decline 30 percent if no measures were issued to help the tourism industry.
Mr. Charoen Vang-ananont, president of the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA), said a number of tourists going abroad would fall 30 percent between the first and the third quarter of this year.
The target group is people who earn about 30,000 baht per month.
Without the government’s support, the annual growth of overseas travel market will be minus 20 percent.
However, the growth will averagely decrease 10 percent with supportive measures.
Travel destinations such as Hong Kong, Macau and Korea have caught on among Thai tourists during the first quarter of this year.
The growth in short journeys was higher than that of the fourth quarter of 2008 whereas the growth in Europe and the United States market shrank 40 percent.
The domestic travel market has not been affected by the economic problem yet, according to Mrs. Somsri Lathapipat, managing director of Regency Travel & Education Co.
Nevertheless, Somsri expected that the domestic market would drop more after the Songkran Festival in April.
