Thailand has welcomed 9.47 million foreign tourists so far this year, generating about 391 billion baht (US$11 billion) of revenue. The majority of visitors to Thailand this year came from Asian nations, such as Malaysia and India.
In 2022, the number of tourist arrivals in Thailand amounted to around 11.15 million, which drastically increased from the previous years. This was still far short of the 40 million-odd international arrivals that the country registered in 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it marks a sharp improvement on the 428,000 visitors that the country saw in 2021, when access to the country was complicated by a host of pandemic-related travel restrictions.
The tourism sector contributes about 20% to Thailand’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs about 15% of its workforce. Therefore, the recovery of tourism is crucial for Thailand’s economic and social development.
