TAT sees Vietnam tourist arrivals declining

       The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has projected a decline in the number of Vietnamese visitors to Thailand this year given unfavorable situations, the director of the authority’s office in HCMC said.
Pichai Raktasinha told the Daily on the phone last week when he was in Bangkok that TAT would see a little decrease in Vietnamese tourist arrivals in Thailand compared to the 337,000 recorded last year.
“We expect that at least 300,000 will visit Thailand this year,” Pichai said. “I do not have high expectations in the challenging time like this.”
TAT, Pichai said, has not released updates about the number of Vietnamese visitors in the first half of this year, but the number in the first quarter was some 80,000. “We only have the figure in the first three months and this is 3% lower than the year-earlier period.”
Pichai said fewer Vietnamese tourists went on vacation in Thailand this year though travel companies and airlines offered lower-priced package tours and airtickets in promotional campaigns.
“We promote Thailand as a shopping paradise as part of the campaigns,” Pichai explained, adding TAT launched a promotion for the tropical fruits including durian and rambutan and others produced in the neighboring country.
Pichai said the fruit promotion proved quite successful at its end in June, the last month of the peak three-month fruit season in Thailand.
Despite the promotional activities, Thailand cannot attract as many Vietnamese travelers as expected, and Pichai pointed out the impact of the global economic recession on the world’s tourism industry as one of the reasons.
For many Vietnamese, the “negative image” of Thailand after political unrest and demonstrations is still fresh in their mind, even though the situation in Thailand is “quite stable now”, said Pichai.
“I think political uncertainties are the only factor that Vietnamese people are concerned about,” Pichai said. He is pinning high hopes that more Vietnamese travelers would soon return to Thailand.
Asked about the impact of influenza A(H1N1) on Thailand’s tourism, Pichai said the pandemic had affected the world, not a single country. He stressed that its impact on Thailand’s tourism industry was insignificant as the country had put it under control.
Pichai said TAT provided full support for travel companies when they arranged tours from Vietnam in response to the Daily’s question about several travel companies’ complaint that they were only given support for their first tour to that country.
Pichai noted Vietnam was emerging a destination for Thai travelers. Last year saw around 180,000 Thai people visit Vietnam, 20,000 higher than in the previous year.