TAT eyes 1 million tourists from Middle East despite ongoing conflicts

The TAT’s deputy governor for International Marketing Europe America Middle East and Africa, Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, on Friday said that the conflict in the Middle East had only a slight effect on the Thai tourism industry as the number of foreign visitors to the Kingdom was still growing. 

Siripakorn said the tension would affect the country only in the short term, hence the TAT was expecting as many as one million visitors from the Middle East region to the KIngdom this year. 

He added that the number of travellers  from Israel and Iran remained constant, even though some airlines have had to change their flight routes to avoid the tension.

“Thailand saw a decrease in the number of tourists from Israel and Iran only during April 13-15 before bouncing back to the normal level from April 16 onwards,” he said.

The decline in numbers was caused by Iran’s vow on April 2 to avenge the deaths of seven people after Israel was accused of bombing the Iranian embassy complex in Syria, as per reports, he added. 

He revealed that currently, there were nine inbound flights from the Middle East to Thailand each week: six to Bangkok and three to Phuket.