A year on, Thailand strives to elevate Covid-hit tourism industry

More than a year and a half since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, Thailand’s tourism industry is now struggling to survive and trying to shift from mass tourism to attracting more quality visitors.

The country received some 40 million international visitors in 2019, and the number came down to only 6.7 million in 2020, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

For 2021, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) predicted that even in the best-case scenario, there will only be around 1-2 million foreign tourists visiting the country.

Some believed that this figure is still considered too optimistic given the current vaccination rate and rising number of daily cases in the country.

Focusing on high-end tourism has always been an ambitious target for Thailand. The authorities now believe that Thailand must use the…