Thailand's tourism industry is making an amazing recovery since the reopening of Bangkok airports after an eight-day closure triggered by a domestic political crisis, late last year.

Figures released by the Airports of Thailand (AoT) show that the number of arrivals totalled 15,567 on Dec 6, the day after Thailand's main aviation gateway, Suvarnabhumi airport reopened. By December 21, the number of daily arrivals had surged to 28,021, a nearly 100% increase.

Arrivals are continuing to increase daily. Although they are still below the normal daily average of about 35,000 arrivals in December 2007, Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Mrs Phornsiri Manoharn expressed satisfaction with the steady and sustained improvement.

"This is clear proof of the high levels of confidence that visitors have in the kingdom of Thailand, the Thai people and the Thai tourism industry," said Mrs Phornsiri. "We are very happy to see the numbers coming back so quickly."

Mrs Phornsiri said that the numbers should grow even more steadily now that a new Thai government has been formed and a new Minister of Tourism and Sports appointed.

"We are very happy to welcome Mr. Chumpol Silpa-archa as the new minister," she said. "The Royal Thai government has received clear directions from His Majesty the King to restore peace and stability to the kingdom, which is exactly what everyone wants."

The minister has also released his tourism policy as follows:1) to maintain cluster development policy, which involves promoting tourism to areas around the main tourist destinations, while distributing visitors to new areas or alternative destinations they may not have previously seen. 2) To set up emergency marketing plan to restore image and encourage tourism in Thailand 3) to participate in ASEAN Tourism Forum 2009 during 5-12 January 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Thailand is now finalising a three-point recovery plan for 2009. These include emergency measures to restore visitor confidence in safety and security, policy measures to promote more domestic travel and international visitor arrivals, and tactical marketing measures which include special campaigns, especially via online marketing

Said Mrs Phornsiri, "Our campaigns will focus on major markets where we will work with industry partners to launch special packages, advertise in local media, promote the Amazing Value Card and Coupon, organize media trips to Thailand, encourage overseas Thai residents to visit Thailand, attract seminar and exhibition in Thailand, etc.

She noted that Bangkok was the major city affected by the closure but the impact also spread to other destinations such as Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Cha-am.

However, the impact was far lower in beach resorts like Phuket, Krabi and Samui due to the number of charter flights which fly directly to those destinations particularly during the winter (October 2008 - March 2009).

Mrs Phornsiri noted that on December 21, 2008, the inaugural flight of XL charter airlines from Paris landed in Phuket, using an Airbus A330-200, with a capacity 364 seats. The charter is being operated at one flight a week, contributing significantly to the revival of tourism.

"Amazing Thailand is back in business," she said.