Thailand surpasses Malaysia in list of world's top tourist destinations for 2024

By Hoang Vu July 10, 2024 | 03:29 pm PT

Tourists visit the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 7, 2022. Photo by AFP

Thailand ranked 8th on a list of the world's 50 most visited tourist destinations as its international tourist number this year is estimated at 39.1 million, surpassing Southeast Asian neighbors such as Malaysia and Vietnam.

Malaysia ranked 14th as its foreign tourist arrivals are forecast to reach 26.1 million this year, ahead of Vietnam (21st), Indonesia (27th), and Singapore (28th), according to WP Travel which offers free web plugins for tour operators, travel booking and trekking agencies.

It used data from Data Pandas to analyze the list of the most visited destinations based on their estimated number of international tourist arrivals for this year.

This year Vietnam is estimated to welcome 18 million foreign arrivals, equivalent to pre-Covid levels while Indonesia and Singapore will receive 15.5 and 15.1 million arrivals, respectively.

France topped the list as the most visited country worldwide, with an impressive total of 89.4 million tourist arrivals, followed by Spain with 83.7 million and the U.S. with 79.3 million.

Southeast Asian countries have been racing to relax visa policies for international tourists in a regional tourism recovery race.

Vietnam received 8.8 million international visitors in the first half of this year, up 58% year-on-year, with South Koreans and Chinese topping the list of visitors.

Thailand received 17 million visitors in the first half.