BANGKOK, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Thailand aims to have 4 million visitors from several neighboring countries in a year, said Thai Tourism & Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul on Thursday.
During a roundtable discussion entitled CLMVT (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand) Forum 2016, the Thai tourism minister said Thailand had 2.7 million tourists from those neighboring countries altogether last year and expected a 50 percent increase to a total of four millions this year.
Given regional connectivity and transportations by land and air, the number of CLMV travelers to Thailand will likely more or less increase, Kobkarn said. There will be free flows of tourists within the CLMVT region for which low-cost land and air transportations are yet to be readily provided, according to the Thai tourism minister.
She joined her CLMV counterparts in discussing "a shared prosperity" which would be achieved with cooperation in tourism sector between the five Southeast Asian countries.
Kobkarn said she will push for low-season tourism among CLMV visitors to Thailand and see to it that agricultural sector will benefit from tourist industry by offering farm goods for sales in varied tourist spots.
Besides major tourist attractions in Thailand's big cities, such as Phuket, Chiang Mai and Bangkok, secondary spots or small towns in the provinces will also be promoted as tourist spots, she said.
Nevertheless, several millions of other travelers to Thailand have come from further corners of the world, particularly China, Europe, the Middle East, Japan and South Korea.
