The Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Thai Chambers of Commerce, in collaboration with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), are preparing a new project to promote second-tier cities with economic potential in terms of trade, investment and tourism to become major cities.
As a result, 10 provinces from 5 regions were jointly selected for the pilot rollout, namely Phra, Lampang, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Phanom, Sisaket, Chanthaburi, Ratchaburi, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Trang, and Trang Province.
Although some provinces that are already major cities, such as Kanchanaburi, believe that the existing economic potential should be further expanded.
The project will be launched in January 2024. Thailand's Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Sreta Tavisin, will host the press conference. This is in line with the Thai government's policy to promote tourism, which aims to promote the potential of the provinces to the global stage and stimulate the Thai tourism market.
The policy has four aspects: 1) to promote tourism in second-tier cities, 2) to promote Thailand as a tourist destination in the peak season throughout the year, 3) to accelerate the development of tourist information services, and 4) to increase tourists' single tourism consumption and increase travel duration. to encourage visitors to stay longer. These are important challenges for the revitalization of the tourism industry.
Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism and Sports Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol announced that tourism has seen a significant increase in tourism for almost all groups of tourists during the period from December 18 to 24, 2023 due to the consecutive Christmas holidays.
A total of 796,808 foreign tourists arrived in Thailand, an increase of 120,303 or 16.6% from the previous week. From March 1 to December 24, 2023, the cumulative number of foreign tourists also exceeded 27 million.
The number of tourists increased during the winter holidays at the end of the year in Europe, with a total of 796,808 foreign arrivals in the past week.
The top five countries of origin for foreign tourists are Malaysia, China, Russia, South Korea and India. The number of tourists from Malaysia, India, Russia, China and South Korea increased by 35.34%, 12.03%, 7.50%, 7.16% and 6.22% respectively compared to the previous week.
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