He said that "The situation in Thailand is back to normal and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has embarked on an immediate tourism recovery plan. Working with other stake holders.

"A cross section of tourists who visited Thailand during the last 10 days have been interviewed by officials of the TAT and all of them had said that the situation had not affected their travel plans," he said.

Swasdibutra admitted that there were a few problems faced by the industry due to the protests and unsettled conditions which was centred around Bangkok but said the situation has been brought under control and there is a marked increase in tourist traffic to the country.

Asked whether there was a drop in the number of tourists visiting Thailand he said it was a negligible percentage but people now continue to fly to Thailand.

Answering whether Thai Airways has any plan to reduce fares Swasdibutra said that fares would be soon reduced on certain routes.

"We will increase the number of frequencies rather than flying to new destinations," he said.

Thai Airways are planning to modernized the existing fleet with new additions and by early 2009 we will be adding six A380’s to our fleet Swasdubutra said.

Colombo has always been an important destination for the airline and we have been operating to Sri Lanka since 1976 uninterrupted he said adding that Thai has had a good volume of both inbound and outbound traffic.

Because of greater connectivity many leisure travelers as well as businessmen travel to Sri Lanka or travel out of Sri Lanka with Thai Airways via Bangkok.

There are immediate connections to different parts of the globe from Bangkok which makes many people fly with Thai he opined.

Swasdibutra said that Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Authority should conduct more road shows in Thailand in order to attract Thai tourists and promote Sri Lanka as a leisure destination.

In some parts of the country, the Thai people are not aware what Sri Lanka has to offer as a tourist destination he said.

Thai Airways flies four times a week Bangkok-Colombo-Bangkok.