Tourism situation in Thailand
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (2008b), the World Tourism Organization estimated that the average growth of international tourists in 2005 would be 5.5 percent (lower than in 2004, when the growth of world tourism experienced a 10 percent expansion), with 808 million international tourists. However, the tourism industry saw a slowdown, as a result of the world economic downturn. The region which was expected to grow at a higher rate was the Asia Pacific (+10%) owing to the fact that tourists paid more attention to finding new attractions in this region, especially in Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and China, where there was high growth in the number of visitors. Other regions with lower expected growth rates were Africa (+7%), the Americas (+6%), Europe (+4%), and the Middle East (+3%). During 1998›2007, the number of tourist arrivals to Thailand almost doubled both in the international and domestic context (See Tables 1 and 2).