The number of Chinese tourists in Thailand is expected to increase by 20percent this year,earning the country around 20 billion baht(US$ 454million)in revenue,according to a report of the Thai Farmers Research Center(TFRC)available today.

The leading think tank said in the report that China is regarded as a potential tourism destination because it is a big market with expected rapid growth.

The Chinese economy has expanded significantly against the global economy,resulting in people enjoying higher purchasing power and beginning to spend more on tourism.

China has also facilitated outbound tourism by shortening the passport application period from around two months to only two weeks and raising the number of countries where Chinese tourists are allowed to visit.

As well,Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have stepped up cooperation with the former agreeing to give up strict rules and regulations on outbound tourists to latter.

Given these factors,the number of Chinese tourists overseas has considerably risen.

TFRC said Thailand is one of the Asia's main attractive tourist destinations which could benefit from the increasing number of Chinese tourists who do not wish to travel to Europe and the United States.

Thailand has a distinguished advantage as it is a peaceful country without racism.It resulted in the improvement to the decline in Chinese arrivals in Thailand last year.

The number of Chinese tourists this year is projected to increase by 20percent to 820,000.

To increase the number of Chinese arrivals,TFRC suggested the government to step up efforts to cope with low-quality tour agencies which are exploiting tourists.

A failure to solve the problem by the government might deprive Thailand of a market share of Chinese tourists which is currently worth more than 500billion baht(US$ 11.36 billion)and isexpected to increase almost five times by 2010.

( eastday.com January 21, 2002)