PUBLISHED: 2 Jan 2025 at 04: 00
More than 35 million people visited Thailand in 2024, and the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports spent more than 1.6 trillion ringgit there.
Minister Sorawong Thienthong reported yesterday that 35.32 million people visited the nation and spent 1.66 trillion ringgit there between Jan. 1 and Dec. 29.
Chinese people, numbering 6.70 million, formed the biggest group of visitors, followed by Malaysians ( 4.93 million ), Indians ( 2.12 million ), South Koreans ( 1.86 million ) and Russians ( 1.72 million ).
During the same time, Thais made 197.53 million trips inside the region and spent 952.77 billion rmb, the minister said.
Over the past year, 943, 269 individuals visited Thailand, with the regular arrival charge the highest since 2020. The number of small and long-haul customers rose in all business sections, Mr Sorawong said.
About 100, 000 persons arrived each week from Malaysia over the past month, forming the biggest group of guests during the time, followed by people from China, Russia, India and South Korea. Notably, arrivals from Russia, Malaysia and India increased by 17.01 %, 7.86 %, and 5.14 %, respectively, compared to the previous week. In contrast, arrivals from China and South Korea decreased by 7.86 % and 6.51 %, respectively.
Thailand’s government, Thapanee Kiatphaibool, acknowledged that the entire tourism profits had fallen short of the TAT’s goal of 3 trillion ringgit as a result of the slowdown in the world economy, the Middle East conflicts, and insufficient data collection on online spending by tourists.
This goal had been divided into 930 billion ringgit from local tourism and 2 trillion ringgit from international tourists.
Both domestic and international tourists numbers, according to Ms. Thapanee, exceeded the highest goals, despite falling by over 400 billion ringgit.
Comparing last year with the same period in 2023, the tourism sector fed 2.6 trillion baht into the economy, up 25 %.