As of the third week of December, Thailand has welcomed more than 34 million visitors this year, up from 32.6 million last year. The target is 35 million by the end of this year, or 7% more.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, international tourists have generated 1.81 trillion baht, higher than its forecast early this year at 1.78 trillion baht. Expected daily tourist spending has slightly increased from 5,100 baht to 5,200 baht per person this year.
Tourists from China will be the biggest group of international arrivals, with an estimated 10 million. If combined with domestic tourists, the total revenue from both international and domestic is predicted at 2.7 trillion baht or nearly 20% of the country's GDP.
For next year, the Tourism Council of Thailand believes that the total number of foreign visitors will reach 37 million. They will generate at least 2.12 trillion baht, up 17% from this year.
The increasing number of tourists always makes the government happy, but maybe not the visitors themselves. After landing, many tourists have complained about the long queues at airport immigration lines.
In September, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha responded to the problem by exercising his Section 44 power under the interim charter and revoked an age-old regulation that requires citizens to fill in immigration cards.
However, the problem remains. Obviating the need to fill out the form hasn't made the line at immigration shorter by one inch.
The major problem remains that of managing immigration officers. They do not man every counter, even with hundreds of passengers lining up. Many times, officers at the counters of premium lanes do not have passengers from business or first class to attend to, but the counters still do not open for other types of passengers, nor they are allocated to serve economy passengers. No solid solution has been seen so far.
No passing grade for Suvarnabhumi
The rank of Suvarnabhumi International Airport went down from 36th in 2016 to 38th this year, according to the Skytrax 100 World's Best Airports. One of the reasons is that the airport is overcrowded.
The Airports of Thailand (AoT) has tried to sugar-coat the image of the airport with the "Airport Of Smile" slogan for more than five years, but passengers hardly smile. The airport was designed to support 45 million passengers a year. But the passenger traffic surpassed its capacity of 47 million passengers in 2011. The airport expansion, which is scheduled to be completed in the next four years, came too slow.
AoT reported that passengers at Suvarnabhumi airport jumped 10% from 53.4 million in 2015 to 59 million in 2016. The number of passengers will reach more than 60 million at the end of this year.
The figures show that the airport handles 33% more than its designed capacity, resulting in unhappy passengers.
Aviation hub status unlikely
Thai airlines received the green light to spread their wings in October when the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) removed Thailand's red-flag status on safety concerns, which was imposed in June 2015.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was happy and eager to push Thailand as an aviation hub of Asean. However, there is another urgent thing that needs to be done.
The aviation industry has still been downgraded by the United States Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since December 2015. The FAA stated that Thailand did not meet international standards and has been assigned a Category 2 rating, down from Category 1 rating which means the country's Civil Aviation Authority complies with ICAO standards.
The government had an ambitious goal that the status would be restored back to Category 1 by March of next year, according to Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith. According to Kasikorn Research Centre, the removal of the red-flag status will certainly help enhance the confidence of the international community toward the Thai aviation industry, and that may prompt the FAA, Japan and South Korea to lift their restrictions on some Thai airlines.
The research firm forecasted that earnings in the Thai airline business may reach 278.9 billion baht this year, and will increase at least 5.5%, to 294.5 billion baht, in 2018, which would be much higher than its previous prediction when the red-flag status was not revoked at 1.3 billion baht this year and 8.4 billion next year.
New Tourism and Sports Minister
The Tourism industry welcomed its new minister on Dec 1 when the prime minister reshuffled the cabinet and appointed Weerasak Kowsurat as the Tourism and Sports minister, replacing Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul.
Considered an experienced holder of the position, Weerasak was the former Tourism and Sports minister for 10 months in 2008 when the government was led by the late Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat. He was also a chairman of the board of several tourism organisations, including the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Sports Authority of Thailand.
Weerasak announced his policy to continue to promote tourism in local communities in second- and third-tier destinations across the country, such as in Samut Sakhon, Chumphon, Nakhon Sawan, Ang Thong and Sing Buri. He also wanted to increase incomes to local communities and support international sport events.
Dangerous roads
People have a reason to be fully alert while travelling in the Kingdom, as it's expected to claim the top position from second in the list of countries with the highest fatality rate in road accidents.
People blamed authorities for lacking traffic law enforcement and wanted the government to invest more effort and money in technology to keep motorists and the public safe, according to a recent survey by Super Poll research centre.
A statistic of the Royal Thai Police showed that about 22,300 lives were lost because of road accidents last year. Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that about 66 die because of road accidents every day. While globally, 49% of road traffic deaths are among vulnerable road users, meaning pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, it is 83% in Thailand, including 73% among motorcyclists, or 48 deaths per day.
The WHO estimated that the country lost 3-5% of its GDP due to road traffic crashes. The ratio is almost the same rate of economic growth, at 3.6-4.6% for next year.
The government tried to reduce road accidents and put its efforts into some minor areas, including a plan to purchase overpriced speed guns for traffic police, replace interprovincial public vans with microbuses, and implement tighter procedures for issuing driving license next year.
Thailand determined to remain world's kitchen
Shortly after the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) announced it will wipe out all street food from the city by the end of this year, CNN voted Bangkok the world's best city for street food for a second year running.
The image of Bangkok without street food seems to be impossible, so BMA's policy has to change a little to focus more on the hygiene of street food vendors, especially in the touristy areas such as Yaowarat and Khao San Road.
The government also tried to reaffirm its policy to make Thailand known as the kitchen of the world by partnering with Michelin Group to launch the first Bangkok Michelin Guide, the world's most recognised restaurant reference, this month.
TAT invested 144 million baht in the project, which unintentionally makes the shophouse restaurant of Jay Fai one of Bangkok's gastronomy destinations. TAT expects that the Thai tourism industry will benefit from the Bangkok Michelin Guide and will boost business and overall economic development.
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