CHIANG MAI, Thailand—The Thai tourism authority is looking to diversify its long-haul source markets and promote its secondary destinations as it looks forward to a robust recovery in 2023.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched a campaign to aims to achieve the above objectives.

In 2022, Thailand received 11 million visitors with top 10 visitors from Thailand coming from countries like Malaysia, India and Singapore, while top long-haul markets are the UK, U.S. and Russia. However,  this January alone the kingdom saw two million arrivals, with the top three markets being Malaysia, Russia and South Korea. 

Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, Tourism Authority of Thailand’s deputy governor of international marketing for Europe, Africa, Middle East and Americas, told delegates at Routes Asia 2023 on Feb. 15 that his authority is targeting 25 million travelers this year and, more importantly, high-value tourism revenue of $42.8 billion. 

To achieve this the authority is looking to expand its source markets, attracting more travelers from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, and from what is now its biggest long-haul market, Russia. 

The campaign is called "ABCD fast forward" with ABCD standing for: "Airline focused"; "Big cities and beyond"; "Collaboration is key"; and "Destination for all." 

With Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) lacking sufficient manpower and capacity to handle a significant influx of aircraft, Siripakorn also promoted secondary cities within Thailand as alternate destinations to connect with other secondary points abroad such as Malaysia’s Sabah, South Korea’s Jeju and Vietnam’s Da Nang to ease strain on major hubs.