Thailand is roughly the size of France. It is recovering from the worst flooding in 50 years, which killed more than 600 people and affected some 12 million lives as of July last year. Somehow, it still managed to pull in a record number of tourists 18.5 million tourist arrivals in 2011. Thailand's Tourism Minister Chumpol Silpaarcha said on December 26 that the tourism sector alone stands to generate more than Baht 700 billion (US$22.2 billion).