Tourism Authority of Thailand opens office in SW China

The Tourism Authority of Thailand opened an office in southwest China's city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on Monday to meet growing market demand. The Thai authority has opened four offices on the Chinese mainland, including offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming, said Narumit Hinshiranan, consul-general of the Thai consulate general in Chengdu. The new office will mainly offer services for tourists from China's vast central and western regions, Hinshiranan said. The Thai consulate general in Chengdu issued a record 100,000 tourist visas to Chinese nationals in the first 11 months of this year, he said. Official statistics show that trade between Thailand and Sichuan hit 280 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year.