Thailand is aiming to attract one million Chinese visitors next year as it tries to recover some of the grounds lost over the past three years in the sector.

The goal is more likely to be achieved after the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the China National Tourism Administration signed an agreement earlier this week in Beijing toenhance tourism cooperation between the two countries, according to a TAT press release Thursday.

"Although China is a market with huge potential for Thai tourism sector, its people do not know much about us. So we need to work closely with our Chinese colleagues to improve the market prospect," said Thai Minister to Prime Minister's Office Somsak Thepsutin, who is in charge of the tourism business in the kingdom.

Last year, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand dropped to 700,000 after peaking at one million three years ago, due to some problems including the so-called "zero tour package."

In the "zero tour package" operation, Thai inbound operators receive no money from the Chinese tour organizers to take care of Chinese tourist groups. As a result, Thai tour guides tend to earnmore commissions from persuading or even forcing Chinese tourists to buy local products or services, which caused complaints from tourists and hurt the whole business.

Somsak said the new pact will help solve the problem, while promoting reasonable prices and human resource training between the tour sectors of the two countries, and finally increasing the tourist traffic between the two countries.

Tourism revenue accounts for 5.8 percent of the Thai economy, afigure TAT wants to double by 2005. East Asian countries such as Japan and China are major tourist sources for the kingdom.

( People's Daily July 18, 2002 )