Thailand’s travel industry states that the stronger baht has made
Thai tourists opt for more overseas than domestic holidays.
President of the Association of Domestic Travel (ADT) Yutthachai
Soonthronrattanavate commented that more Thais have found it
increasingly affordable to travel abroad because of the baht
appreciation. As a result, the local travel business has been
inadvertently hurt.
Yutthachai is calling on all
operators to start looking for new ways to boost their business while
the situation is not in their favour.
He stated that the
issue has already been brought to the attention of the Bank of Thailand
(BoT), which was also informed that the Thai travel business will be
considerably affected if the local currency strengthened beyond the
28.50-baht-per-dollar level.
In addition, the ADT
President is urging the government to keep a close eye on the baht while
helping create more man-made tourist destinations to boost the
industry, such as a large theme park or a casino intended for foreign
visitors.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of
inbound holidaymakers grew 7-10 percent on-year while it is forecast
that Thailand will see about 25 million foreign visitors landed in
the country by the end of 2013.-VNA