Stagnant economy, geopolitical factors slow outbound tourism

Thailand’s outbound tourism industry is estimated to grow only 5-7% year on year in 2024 with a projected 10 million Thais visiting overseas destinations, the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA) said on Tuesday.

This number is still lower than that before Covid-19 outbreak, when some 12 to 13 million Thais were travelling overseas every year, association president Charoen Wangananont said.

The TTAA attributed the slow expansion to a stagnant economy that prompted people to be more careful with their spending, and geopolitical factors that discourage people from travelling internationally, notably the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Charoen said the fact that baht has become stronger in the past months has not helped boost outbound tourism very much, as costs for overseas travel have also increased this year, Hotel fees, food and transport expenses have gone up by 10-15% on average, he added.

The TTAA estimated that in 2024 Japan will remain the top destination among Thai tourists, as it has for the past several years.

The Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) has reported that Thai tourists to the country in the first nine months of this year were ranked in sixth place after visitors from South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States.

The JNTO said that some 752,000 Thais visited Japan from January to September, increasing 19.2% year on year, but contracting 13.4% from statistics in 2019, before the pandemic.