Southeast Asia's second largest economy welcomes over 20M foreign tourists

By VNA July 28, 2024 | 07:36 pm PT

Chinese tourists take pictures in downtown in Bangkok, Thailand, March 31, 2024. Photo by Reuters

Thailand, Southeast Asia's second largest economy after Indonesia, recorded more than 20 million international visitors so far this year, up 34% compared to the same period last year, its Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said.

In his recent post on a social network platform, Srettha highly valued efforts of parties and sectors for pushing various effective measures, including visa-free travel, more flights, the creation of an aviation hub and improvements in tourist attractions, which led to the surge in numbers of travelers.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is preparing activities to attract tourists from different countries every month, he said, expressing the hope that the tourism sector get ready as Thailand's big door has opened.

Data from the Tourism and Sports Ministry of Thailand showed that the biggest group is visitors from mainland China (nearly 4 million), followed by Malaysia (over 2.78 million), India (over 1.17 million), South Korea (over 1 million), Russia (987,861), Laos (714,564), Taiwan (610,270), Vietnam (597,695) and the U.S. (575,268).

In 2019, the year before the onset of the Covid pandemic, Thailand, whose economy heavily relies on tourism, welcomed a record 39.9 million foreign arrivals, generating 1.91 trillion baht (US$51.9 billion) in revenue.