The plan is to boost sales in the third quarter during the low tourism season in Europe and target cities include London, Stockholm, Paris, Frankfurt and Rome.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is collaborating with Thai Airways International and three Middle East Airlines (Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways) to attract European travelers from primary and secondary cities to the country.

Currently, each of the Middle East airlines has about 200 monthly flights to Thailand and uses wide-body jets. Qatar Airways plans to expand flight connection to Krabi and Chiang Mai in December 2016.

Tourist arrivals from Europe to Thailand are expected to grow 9% to 988,000 visitors in the second quarter of 2016, while tourism receipt is expected to grow by 12% to 73.4 billion baht.

TAT has set a target of 5.66 million European visitors in 2016 generating revenue of 420 billion baht, representing a growth of 6% and 4%, respectively, from previous year.

It is forecasted that the average spend per European visitor per trip will be 74,205 Baht, up 6% from previous year.

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