File photo: REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Thailand's Kasikorn research thinktank has completely reassessed their predictions for the number of foreign tourists likely to visit Thailand in the remainder of this year.
After earlier predictions of 250,000 to 650,000 arrivals they are now saying the likelihood is that it will be just 150,000.
Even this may be on the optimistic side given the situation in the country at present.
These figures were already much more conservative that those coming from the Tourism Authority of Thailand and tourism and sports minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan, notes ASEAN NOW.
Many people both inside Thailand and looking in from afar had deemed their predictions as little more than "pie-in-the-sky".
Kasikorn said, in a wide ranging report that looked at the changing face of tourism around the world in light of the rapid spread of the Delta variant, that Thailand was facing a "challenging time" with the country's severe pandemic crisis.
On top of this the country is also facing political instability that is also not conducive to promoting the kingdom as a place for international tourism.
Kasikorn referred to current conditions being faced in tourism markets across the world as a "fourth wave of the virus".
They pointed to limited success for the Special Tourist Visa and the Phuket Sandbox that were "well received" but noted that Thailand's tourism outlook was not rosy.
The country needed to look towards next year for any possible improvement in the numbers utilizing knowledge gained from experience of 2021.
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