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Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports has announced its success in pushing up the number of tourists by over 15% during the six months to the end of March 2015.

During a recent presentation of the Ministry’s half year achievements, Thailand Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul revealed that political stability in Thailand has been the main factor restoring foreigners’ confidence.

As a result, the count of foreign visitors between October 2014 and March 2015 rose 15.42% year-on-year to 16.74 million while nearly 824 billion baht (US$24.3 billion) of tourism income was generated, an increase of 17.81%.

Chinese tourists represented the largest group of visitors to the Kingdom, with a growth of almost 70%, followed by those from Malaysia, Russia, Japan and Singapore respectively

The most popular destinations were Chiang Mai, Phuket, Songkhla, Pattaya and Krabi.

Looking forward to the end of 2014, the Ministry is also maintaining its revenue target for this year at 2.2 trillion baht (US$59 billion), THB 1.4 trillion (US$35.4 billion) of which coming from foreigners and the other THB 800 billion (US$23.6 billion) from domestic travelers.

Minister Kobkarn stated that the ministry is coordinating with tourism operators in drafting a long-term tourism reform plan, which would seek to adjust tourism in each area in correspondence with the local way of life and accentuate the identity of each community.

The Minister is confident the plan will be finished this month, after which it will be proposed to the Cabinet.

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