BANGKOK • Thailand, land of golden temples, white-sand beaches, smiling hosts.

Or of overcrowded airports, epic traffic jams and littered seashores.

Facing a deluge of Chinese tourists that has strained its airports beyond capacity, the country is spending billions to upgrade its infrastructure, open up new islands and cities to travellers and tone down its image of cheap shopping, hotels and sex that underpinned the sector for half a century.

But the change will take years and even then may fail to keep up with soaring visitor numbers that have given the Land of Smiles a reputation for delays, overcrowding and government crackdowns.

"Our strategy was more for less, not less for more, so we invited a lot of tourists from China," said Dr Suvit Maesincee last month, when he was the minister in the Prime Minister's office. "I think in the near future, we need to change from volume to value." The government relies on tourism for 18 per cent of the economy and foreign inflows have made the baht one of the strongest performers in Asia this year, a bright spot amid weak domestic consumer demand and private investment.

While it plans to spend over US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) to double capacity at its international airports, it also plans to raise foreign tourist numbers at a similar pace, reaching 68 million in the next decade.

Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said after a press briefing on Dec 1: "Today we're not even ready. To get us prepared within a year is not even possible."

At the heart of the upgrade, and the congestion, are Bangkok's two international airports: Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, which are running at 40 per cent beyond designed capacity.

New terminals, facilities and another runway would let them handle 130 million passengers a year. But work will not be done until 2022 at the earliest, and the first taste most travellers get of the Thai capital is a long queue at immigration.

Spokesman Thongyoo Suphavit-tayakorn for the Association of Thai Travel Agents said: "The problem with the Thai government is they want to increase the number of visitors but they don't stop to check first if we're able to accommodate them."

Thailand's ability to draw tourists has defied the effects of a military coup and floods, among others.

The number of Chinese visitors to Thailand has tripled in the past five years, to 8.8 million last year. They account for over a quarter of foreign tourists and 28 per cent of revenue, said official data.

BLOOMBERG