Deputy Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Srisuda Wanapinyosak has revealed that the TAT is expecting Chinese tourists visiting Thailand during 1-7 October 2015 to be as high as 160,000 persons, a 40 percent increase compared to the previous year.

She points that the forecasted influx of Chinese tourist during this period will circulate up to 4.3 billion baht to Thailand’s economy.

Chinese tourists are the main segment of Thailand’s tourists. 60 percent of Chinese visitors are travelling through tour packages, while another 40 percent are free independent travelers (FIT).

The TAT now expects the gross number of tourists visiting Thailand in 2015 to be at 29.92 million, higher than the previous forecast of 28.8 million, and expects income from tourism to be at 1.44 trillion baht, higher than the previous target of 1.4 trillion.

On this matter, the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) advisor Siddiwat Cheewarattanaporn has said that it is likely that Chinese tourists inbound to Thailand could reach 7 million as the country has already welcomed 4.7 million Chinese visitors during the first seven months of this year.

The increased number of tourists could pressure facilities operation capacity, thus he suggested that the government should help the tourism sector prepare to receive more tourists for the remainder of this year.