Prasenjit Chakraborty - Mumbai The Thailand Travel Mart Plus (TTM+) 2023 will help the tourism industry recover faster from the losses it made due to the Covid-19 pandemic, hopes Sukanya Sirikanjanakul, Executive Director, ASEAN South Asia and South Pacific Region, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) while speaking to journalists from India and Sri Lanka yesterday.
She said that the 2023 edition of TTM+ hosted 370 buyers. “The figure was 250 in the last edition,” Sukanya said. She also stated that the addition of Amazing Thailand Culinary City will help enhance the Kingdom’s image from the gastronomy point of view.
Talking about inbound tourism she said that last year the country received 11 million international tourists. “This year from January – May 30, we already touched the figure of 10 million international tourists,” said Sukanya.
Replying to a question from TravelBiz Monitor, she said India has always been an important for Thailand. Talking about the target for 2023, she said, “In 2019, we received 40 million international tourists, and out of this 2 million were from India. Since we are recovering from the losses due to the pandemic, we have kept the target to 2 million from the Indian market. We will do everything possible to reach this figure,” said a confident Sukanya. She also added that during January – May, 600,000 Indian tourists visited Thailand. “This is very encouraging,” she said.
TAT is also targeting wedding and MICE segments from India in a big way. “MICE movement is very good from India, especially from the cities of Delhi and Mumbai,” Sukanya said. On the sustainability front, she said that they are mainly focusing on the supply side.
Sports tourism is another area of focus for TAT. They are currently working on this to attract more tourists other than for golf. “In the future, we have plans to bring the Indian cricket team to play here. In this direction, we are focusing on improving the infrastructure,” Sukanya pointed out.
