Southeast Asia's second largest economy welcomes nearly 27 million tourists

The Southeast Asia's second largest economy now needs to attract at least 10.5 million foreign tourists in the fourth quarter of this year to achieve the 36.7 million target set for 2024, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

TAT Governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said attracting at least 3.5 million foreign arrivals per month during the last three months of the year remains achievable, given numerous promotions, events and an increase in seat capacity, particularly from new routes to countries like China, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the U.K., Germany, Poland and Australia.

Regardless Israel-Hamas conflict, some markets in the Middle East still reported strong demand and newly confirmed flights such as direct flights from Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Phuket in December.

Russia will also have more direct flights to Phuket, led by S7 Airlines' flights from Irkutsk in November and December, after a new route from the Siberian city to Bangkok in October.

The Indian cities of Chennai and Ahmedabad will also launch direct flights to Phuket starting this month.

However, risk factors such as natural disasters, conflicts in the Middle East and a strong domestic currency have caused TAT to forecast that tourism revenue for the whole year 2024 will reach only 2.8 trillion baht (US$83.7 billion), equivalent to 93% of the target of 3 trillion baht set at the beginning of the year.

Vietnam welcomed over 12.7 million international visitors in the first nine months of this year, surpassing the 12.6 million recorded for all of 2023.