The positive global publicity generated by last year's 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne was a major contributing factor for the tourism industry, as it recorded 13.82 million visitor arrivals - more than 20 per cent higher than in 2005.

At the same time, however, arrivals were affected by the September military coup, although the relatively peaceful nature of the change in government mitigated any serious long-term effects, the Tourism Authority of Thailand said this week.

The high rate of increase last year was a reflection of the tourism industry's returning to normal following the severe impact of the December 2004 tsunami.

This year is likely to see arrivals settling down to a more modest single-digit growth level of 7 per cent, with just under 15 million visitors.

These details are included in a state-of-the-market analysis produced by the TAT and are now being made available for public release.

TAT governor Phornsiri Manoharn said there was little doubt that the massive global publicity generated by His Majesty's 60th year on the throne, plus the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek in Chiang Mai, went a long way towards presenting a positive image of Thailand worldwide.

"This was supported by many other contributing factors, such as the start of new low-cost flights by airlines like Jetstar Asia from Australia to Phuket, the start of Thai Airways International flights to Indian cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, and new charter flights from Korea and Europe," she said.

South Korea has joined the club of countries generating more than one million annual visitor arrivals for Thailand, along with Malaysia and Japan. It is widely projected that China will join the club this year, and India will follow suit not long after.

Worldwide, and across all regions, Thailand continued to benefit from good global economic conditions, the absence of any serious crisis and the continued propensity of people to travel for leisure, business, conventions and self-indulgence.

There was strong growth across all source markets of Northeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, North America and South Asia.

Many airlines resumed flying to Phuket and new airlines such as Hong Kong Express started flights to Chiang Mai. New charters were also launched, such as St Petersburg-Phuket for the Russian market.

From the Middle East, additional capacity continued to be mounted by airlines like Etihad, Qatar Airways and Emirates, which generated new arrivals from both the Middle East as well as other points in Europe through the airlines' respective hubs in the Gulf.

New markets such as Vietnam are also showing substantial promise for future growth. South Africa is also producing good numbers, thanks to the new flights by Thai Airways from Johannesburg to Bangkok.

This year, according to Phornsiri, the post-tsunami growth rate of 20 per cent is unlikely to be matched, which should give the country a golden opportunity to adjust many of the tourism policies and marketing strategies in line with the sufficiency-economy principles of His Majesty.

"Our traditional strengths of our geographical location, good airline access, popular products, good value for money, and visa-free accessibility for citizens of many countries will ensure that visitors keep coming.

"However, this means that we must now start focusing more on attracting more niche-market visitors in specific fields like health and wellness, MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] and ecotourism," she said.

In the first two months of this year, visitor arrivals have totalled 2.58 million, a small growth of 5 per cent.

Reports from TAT offices abroad indicate that the Kingdom is beginning to feel the impact of negative publicity related to the continued unrest in southern Thailand, the presence of travel advisories by a number of countries and the stronger baht.

However, Phornsiri said the situation was not considered serious and would be met through stronger and more focused marketing and promotion efforts in key potential markets.