The rather peaceful martial law that was effected in Thailand since May last year has been lifted, except for the southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, the Sadao district of Songkhla province and some border areas which are not on the tourist map.
Martial Law has had little effect on travel and tourism over the past 10 months with all businesses, facilities and attractions in the industry continuing with business as usual. Soraya Homchuen, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand Mumbai Office said, “Arrivals have been good – we received about 950,000 Indian travellers in 2014 and January too showed over 85,000 Indian travellers. I hope this positive news will mean even higher numbers from India especially since it comes at a very opportune moment – just as the summer holiday season has begun. Most Indians continued to travel and enjoy Thailand as they always have, right through the martial law. Now that the martial law has been lifted, even those who had reservations about travelling during its imposition will be reassured and will plan holidays to Thailand.
Since Martial Law was imposed, Indian tourist arrivals have remained consistently positive and the destination is on the track to achieve over a million arrivals by the year end Homchuen informed.
Besides the summer holidays Thailand is keen to capitalise on 2015’s long list of long weekends: travel agents are being encouraged to promote the destination for extended weekend breaks.
