Thais are expected to flock to the northern provinces to experience cooler weather from now until the year-end, improving prospects for the region's hotels.
Yuthasak: Expects bumper month
Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said cool weather and tax breaks are the major factors encouraging locals to plan trips during this period.
He predicts more tourists will travel to secondary cities during weekdays thanks to a tourist tax deduction initiative running until the end of the year.
"Thai tourists going North will gain double privileges -- attractive prices if they travel on weekdays and a tax deduction," Mr Yuthasak said.
The cabinet has approved tax breaks on tourism spending in 55 second-tier provinces, aimed at spurring travel and distributing income to these less-visited parts of the country.
The year-long tax breaks that end on Dec 31, are being offered to individual travellers who spend on accommodation, food and drinks, as well as to corporations that organise seminars and meetings in these secondary locations.
This week, the Thai Meteorological Department forecast temperatures in the North to fall sharply in mountainous and high plateau areas to between 4C and 11C.
As a result, the northern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association reported that most hotels, especially in Chiang Rai, Nan and Mae Hong Son provinces, were already nearly fully booked.
Some hotels and resorts are fully booked through December and January.
Major tourist attractions such as Phu Chee Fah in Chiang Rai province, Doi Inthanon in Chiang Mai province, and Nan provincial authorities have set up tourist service facilities and areas to cope with an influx of tourists.
Mr Yuthasak said that with less than a month before the year-long tax scheme ends, more tourists are travelling ahead of the year-end period.
The TAT has predicted that more domestic tourists will travel to smaller cities because they can enjoy the tax initiative.
The governor said more than 4,000 tourist attractions and over 8,000 accommodation establishments are ready to serve tourists in secondary destinations.
Under the second-tier province promotion, the TAT is confident that domestic travel will hit 167 million trips by the year's end, higher than the initial forecast of 160 million.
Domestic income from tourism is expected to total 1 trillion baht as planned or up 8% on last year.
In 2019, domestic travel is expected to see 177 million trips, generating income of 1.18 trillion baht.
