Thai tourism industry on definite road to recovery, says govt

Deputy government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek said on Tuesday that several figures clearly point to a recovery in the tourism industry.

She said more than 4 million foreign tourists have landed in Thailand over the first eight months of the year, and the government expects to log 7.5 million arrivals from July to December. This will mark a 1,840 per cent increase from the same period last year.

Ratchada added that the country can expect to earn 400 million baht from tourist spending in the second half.

She also cited four factors that will promote tourism, namely:

• Airlines resuming flights and launching new routes

• Many countries easing entry and departure restrictions making it easier to travel

• China allowing the resumption of some international flights

• Thailand has reopened border checkpoints to welcome tourists from neighbouring countries

Ratchada added that figures from the Commerce Ministry’s Business Development Department also indicate a tourism recovery.

The department reported that 549 new tour-guide and hotel-booking businesses with a capital of 989 million baht were registered in the first seven months of this year. This marked a 169 per cent and 226 per cent increase in the two business streams, respectively.

As of the end of July, there were 11,891 tourism and hotel-booking operators worth about 43 billion baht.

If the investment in tourism businesses is broken down by the nationality of owners, then 37 billion baht was invested by Thais (87.2 per cent), 1.1 billion baht by Chinese (2.6 per cent), 528 million baht by South Koreans (1.2 per cent), 445 million baht by Indians (1 per cent) and 3.4 billion baht by other nationalities (8 per cent).

The spokesperson said the recovery can be attributed to the cooperation from all sectors and several government measures introduced to stimulate the tourism industry.

For instance, she said, the government has extended the period covered by visa-on-arrival and has launched several campaigns to promote popular destinations.

She added that though the government expects some 10 million foreign arrivals, it is concerned that new viruses, the Russia-Ukraine war and global inflation will affect people’s decision to travel.