Sharp jump in spending by Thais on parties and travel during New Year holidays, poll shows
The majority of people spent money on parties and get-together activities, according to a poll conducted by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC)’s Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting on people’s spending during the year-end and New Year.
The results of the poll, revealed on Tuesday, surveyed an undisclosed number of participants.
Of the respondents, 68.4% said they spent money on parties/get-togethers, while 60.4% said they spent money on domestic and overseas travel; 47.7% spent on religious ceremonies or donations during the year-end; some 31% bought household appliances; 27.6% said they bought luxury items such as jewellery; 17.1% spent on alcohol for New Year celebrations; and 10.7% bought lottery tickets to try their luck in the New Year.
The UTCC said it was notable that this year only 9.4% of respondents said they spent New Year time relaxing at home, compared to 43.6% in 2021. This signals a big jump in travel demand during the New Year holidays, the UTCC said.
The UTCC had earlier estimated that around 103.03 billion baht would be spent by Thais during the New Year festival this year, a 20.1% increase from the previous year and the highest in 17 years.
“It would be the first time that consumer spending would be exceeding 100 billion baht since 2007,” the UTCC president, Thanavath Phonvichai, said last month.
He added that with the support of the government’s stimulus measures, such as “Shop Dee Mee Kuen” (Shop and Payback) and “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together) schemes during the first quarter of next year, the country’s economy is expected to grow by 0.1% to 1%.
