Tourist arrivals from China surpassed those from Singapore to rank third in the first eight months of this year thanks to the closer Thai-Chinese ties, according to a report by the Thai Farmers Research Center received November 8.

Chinese tourists had been the fourth largest group last year after arrivals from Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

The report said that 800,000 Chinese tourists are expected to visit Thailand in 1999, generating foreign exchange revenue of 24.1 billion baht (634 million US dollars).

The country, however, was unable to gain the full benefits as unethical travel agents and tour guides were damaging its image in the emerging Chinese market by offering cheap, low-quality tour packages, the report said.

Travel agents were offering heavily discounted tour packages to Chinese visitors -- costing Thailand at least 1 billion baht (26.3 million dollars) per year, it said, calling for a crackdown on tour operators who were using questionable tactics to compensate for their rock-bottom price tour packages.

These tactics damaged Thailand's tourism image among the Chinese visitors and were considered very detrimental to the entire tourism business in Thailand, the report said.

"High quality tourism programs should be promoted among the premium tourists in China, given their promising growth potential and higher purchasing power," it said. (Xinhua)