Thailand welcomes 23 million tourists this year with Malaysians topping list

Tourism and Sports Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol said on Tuesday that her ministry’s permanent secretariat has reported that 23,241,338 foreign tourists arrived in Thailand from January 1 to November 12. During their time in Thailand, they generated revenue of 981.69 billion baht for the kingdom.

According to the secretariat’s Economics Tourism and Sports Division, the top five nationalities visiting the country this year were:

• Malaysia: 3,824,445

• China: 2,902,462

• South Korea: 1,375,958

• India: 1,354,712

• Russia: 1,170,203

Sudawan said data shows that 611,121 foreigners entered Thailand during the week of November 6-12 or about 87,303 tourists daily. This was 9.61% higher than the average in the previous week, which saw 53,567 daily, the minister added.

Sudawan put last week’s influx down to the Diwali holidays in Malaysia and Singapore. She said the number of Malaysian arrivals rose to 49,919 or 28.65% higher than the previous week.

The minister said she expects more foreigners to land on Thai soil next week thanks to a higher number of flights and cold winter in their countries.

She added that the waiver of visa fees for tourists from China, Kazakhstan and India, as well as longer visas for Russians, would contribute to a higher number of tourists before yearend.