Thailand expects wave of tourists during Golden Week

By VNA April 25, 2024 | 04:48 pm PT

Tourists shop for street foods ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Bangkok's Chinatown, Thailand, Jan. 19, 2023. Photo by Reuters

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) estimates that about 996,000 foreign tourists will visit the Southeast Asian country between April 26 and May 5, known as the Golden Week holidays in Japan, during which Chinese tourists also prefer to travel overseas.

The estimated number of arrivals is about 29% higher than the statistics from last year, said Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT Deputy Governor for Asia and South Pacific markets.

He said foreign tourists during this period would generate around THB32.2 billion (US$870 million) for local entrepreneurs, a jump of 35% year-on-year.

Chattan said about 230,000 of the 996,000 will be Chinese, attributing the surge to a visa waiver deal between Thailand and China, which allows their citizens to stay for a maximum of 30 days.

Another factor will be the additional flights to Thailand being offered by various airlines during the May Day holiday, he added.

Online travel platform Agoda, meanwhile, announced that its survey of Japanese tourists found that Thailand is in second place among popular foreign destinations during the Golden Week. The Republic of Korea (RoK) ranked first while Taiwan, the US, and Vietnam take third to fifth place, respectively.

According to Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Songkran Festival, from April 1 to 21, generated a total income of THB140.335 billion, higher than the ministry’s previous estimate of THB132 billion.

Over 1.92 million foreign tourists visited Thailand during the festival, up 37.54% against the same period last year.

The top 10 sources of foreign tourist arrivals during the festival were mainland China, Malaysia, India, Russia, the RoK, Laos, the U.K., Taiwan, the U.S. and Indonesia.