BANGKOK, 21 May 2014 – The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) expressed belief that the invocation of martial law would benefit the country’s tourism sector in the long run.
The agency also said the martial law is expected to effectively contain the political crisis, which had escalated to a spate of violent attacks during the past months.
Over the past, the prolonged protests which lasted for over 6 months have negatively impacted tourism industry. For this reason, the TCT has revised down the number of tourist arrivals this year by 10 percent from 29.92 million to 26.84 million. The revenue is also set to shrink to 1.1 trillion baht this year.
During the first quarter of 2014, the number of tourists has dropped to 6.6 million or down 5.86 percent from the same period last year.
The agency noted that the imposition of martial law will not boost tourist arrivals in the short term and related bodies need to step up campaigns in order to attract more tourists from major markets. However, the tourism sector is set to bounce back from the crisis in the long run.
