Thailand greets 29 million tourists this year, earns 1.35tn baht
Tourism industry rebounds with visitors from China, Malaysia, India, South Korea and Russia leading the list; recent spike attributed to winter holidays and Diwali break
Thailand has welcomed more than 29 million foreign arrivals during the first 10 months of this year, generating 1.35 trillion baht in tourism revenue.
Tourism and Sports Minister Sorawong Thienthong said on Wednesday that 29,080,399 foreign tourists arrived in Thailand from January 1 to November 3 and they have spent some 1.36 trillion baht during their stay.
The top five nationalities to visit the country in the first 10 months of this year are:
- Chinese: 5,756,998
- Malaysian: 4,187,399
- Indian: 1,725,659
- South Korean: 1,539,516
- Russian: 1,309,395
In the past week, Thailand saw 701,962 foreign arrivals, marking an increase of 117,500 or 20.10% from the previous week.
The top five nationalities to visit Thailand over the past week were:
- Malaysian: 123,121
- Chinese: 96,756
- Russian: 41,397
- Indian: 40,956
- South Korean: 32,593
Sorawong said the past week saw a surge in both short- and long-haul tourists.
He said 243,204 long-haul tourists arrived in Thailand over the past week, up 24.85% from the previous week. This is the first time since March that the number of long-haul tourists was more than 200,000, he added. The minister attributed this surge to the start of the holiday season in Europe, America and Oceania.
Sorawong added that short-haul tourists rose by 17.72% last week because of long holidays for Diwali in several countries, including India, Malaysia and Singapore.
