Bangkok: Thailand refrained from giving a new target for tourist arrivals this year, citing the global recession and political uncertainty at home.
"We don't have a specific forecast for this year as the situation is still fluid," Pensuda Priaram, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's acting governor, told reporters on Monday. "We hope we will have a better year next year."
The agency is targeting 14 million tourists next year, expecting them to generate revenue of 530 billion baht (Dh57.3 billion), Pensuda said.
Foreign tourists, who contribute to about six per cent of Thailand's gross domestic product, have declined in number every month since September as the global recession and local protests prompted individuals and businesses to defer travel. The Southeast Asian nation is in its first recession in a decade.
The tourism authority said in December it expected to draw 12 million travellers this year, compared with last year's 14.5 million visitors. A drop this year would be a first fall in numbers since 2005.
Tourist arrivals slid 11.6 per cent from a year earlier to 1.01 million in April, the central bank said May 29. Eight straight months of declines are the longest contraction since Bloomberg began tracking arrivals in 1997.
Political protesters seized Bangkok's main airports for eight days in Nov-ember, forced the cancellation of a regional leaders summit, and triggered riots and a state of emergency in Bangkok in April. Three people have died of swine flu in Thailand, where the number of reported cases was 1,330 on Monday.
Thailand's government is the third in 18 months. The previous two were opposed by protesters who seized the airports last year. The protest group that scuttled a leaders summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Pattaya and triggered Bangkok riots say Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power illegitimately.
"We don't have a specific forecast for this year as the situation is still fluid," Pensuda Priaram, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's acting governor, told reporters on Monday. "We hope we will have a better year next year."
The agency is targeting 14 million tourists next year, expecting them to generate revenue of 530 billion baht (Dh57.3 billion), Pensuda said.
Foreign tourists, who contribute to about six per cent of Thailand's gross domestic product, have declined in number every month since September as the global recession and local protests prompted individuals and businesses to defer travel. The Southeast Asian nation is in its first recession in a decade.
The tourism authority said in December it expected to draw 12 million travellers this year, compared with last year's 14.5 million visitors. A drop this year would be a first fall in numbers since 2005.
Tourist arrivals slid 11.6 per cent from a year earlier to 1.01 million in April, the central bank said May 29. Eight straight months of declines are the longest contraction since Bloomberg began tracking arrivals in 1997.
Political protesters seized Bangkok's main airports for eight days in Nov-ember, forced the cancellation of a regional leaders summit, and triggered riots and a state of emergency in Bangkok in April. Three people have died of swine flu in Thailand, where the number of reported cases was 1,330 on Monday.
Thailand's government is the third in 18 months. The previous two were opposed by protesters who seized the airports last year. The protest group that scuttled a leaders summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Pattaya and triggered Bangkok riots say Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power illegitimately.