Tourism Statistics
Tourism statistics presented in this chapter have been derived from the Tourism Authority
of Thailand, Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
H.R.H. Krompra Kampaengpet Akkarayothin, commissioner of the former State Railways
Department then was keen in promoting tourism by sending documents on Thailand to publicize the
country in the United States. He also set up a Public Section at the department around 1924 to
provide facilities and services to tourists visiting Thailand and also to publicize Thailand to
foreigners.
In 1949, the Cabinet considered and agree that it was appropriate to improve the tourist
unit. When tourist promotion was transferred to the Department of Publicity, under the Office of the
Prime Minister, it was renamed “Office of Tourism Promotion”
The establishment of a Tourist Organization as a state enterprise, attached to the Office of
the Prime Minister, was initiated in 1959 by a Royal Decree. In 1979, a review of the Tourist
Organization of Thailand (TOT) was discussed, and it was decided to raise the status of the TOT to
the “ Tourism Authority of Thailand ” (TAT), in the 1979 Tourism Act. And as of October 2002, it
is an agency under the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
In 1965, the first overseas office was opened in New York, U.S.A. and the first local office
was opened in Chiang Mai in 1968. Up to 2003, the Tourism Authority of Thailand maintained 17
overseas offices, and expanded its local offices to the provinces around the country for a total 22
local offices.
