Thailand’s tourism recovery remains subdued

Thailand saw just 3.78 million tourist arrivals from January to mid-August, a government official said on August 19 as arrival numbers are just slowly recovering from the great Covid-19 slump during the past two years. The arrivals were mainly from Malaysia, India, Singapore, the UK and the US and generated proceeds of 176 billion baht ($4.92 billion), Reuters cited Taweesin Visanuyothin, a government spokesperson. While the visitor numbers are obviously a multiple of arrivals compared with the period when the country imposed cumbersome entry regulations under the “Thailand Pass” entry scheme during the pandemic, it still seems that the attraction…

Thailand saw just 3.78 million tourist arrivals from January to mid-August, a government official said on August 19 as arrival numbers are just slowly recovering from the great Covid-19 slump during the past two years.

The arrivals were mainly from Malaysia, India, Singapore, the UK and the US and generated proceeds of 176 billion baht ($4.92 billion), Reuters cited Taweesin Visanuyothin, a government spokesperson.

While the visitor numbers are obviously a multiple of arrivals compared with the period when the country imposed cumbersome entry regulations under the “Thailand Pass” entry scheme during the pandemic, it still seems that the attraction of Thailand for the usual masses has faded.

Far from the all-time high of nearly 40 million arrivals

In 2021, foreign arrivals plummeted to just 428,000 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, compared with a record of nearly 40 million in 2019.

This year, Thailand’s tourism ministry expects between eight million and ten million arrivals, a conservative prognosis that takes into account weaker international tourism travel due to the global economic situation and other factors such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait, but also owing to Thailand’s waning competitiveness among regional tourism destinations.

However, tourism representatives and hotel operators said that they would rather forecast an even more cautious number of between six and eight million tourist arrivals as it would be too risky to depend on an unknown and unpredictable situation during the final quarter of the year.

High dependance on tourism income

Additionally, many analysts believe that the country will have a hard time to regain full-blown tourism proceeds which at best times officially contributed around 15 per cent to Thailand’s GDP, while estimates including “unofficial” – non-tax registered – spending are bringing this number to as much as a whopping 25 per cent.

To motivate more tourists to visit the country, Thailand will be introducing some measures including extending the duration of its visa-on-arrival, which applies to nationals including India, China and Saudi Arabia, from 15 days to 30 days starting in October.