Thailand's tourism sector hasn't been affected by the avian influenza outbreaks, said the authorities, pointing to increasing visitors in this year.

While the kingdom still under the second hit of bird flu outbreaks, the epidemic has no remarkable impact over the country' s tourism sector, Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop was quoted on Tuesday by newspaper Businessday as saying.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of tourists visiting Thailand has increased by about 23 percent, which is close to the government's target of 24 percent growth for this year, said the deputy prime minister.

"We are confident that the number of tourists this year should be higher than our target," he was quoted as saying.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) expects to attract about 12 million tourists this year.

However, the country's tourists agencies have complained about the pinch of both rising oil prices and bird flu outbreaks, saying small businesses have to close up because of the double pressure.

"It's likely that only the big players will survive. New firms with smaller profits are in trouble," Anek Srichevachart, president of the Thai Travel Agent Association, was earlier quoted by newspaper The Nation as saying.

Thailand has been highly alerted in the new round of bird flu outbreaks, which have seen three of four infected patients die of the virus and a probable human-to-human transmission case.

Listing eradication of bird flu virus as the first national priority, the Thai authorities started a campaign to assure the public it's safe to travel in Thailand.

TAT has linked its website to that of the World Health Organization so that visitors can check the latest situation of the epidemic in Thailand.

The government was determined to eradicate the avian influenza virus from the kingdom by the end of October, Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang told reporters at the Foreign Correspondent Club of Thailand on Monday night.

He also said the government will try to use all possible resources to promote related research programs so as to tackle the problem in the long term.

In the two rounds of bird flu outbreak, Thailand has reported 11 deaths of bird flu infection, and at least 30 million birds have been culled or died in the kingdom and orders of billions of dollars have been canceled.

(eastday.com October 13, 2004)