In the period from January 1 to June 26, the number of foreign tourists in Thailand amounted to 2.03 million people. Such data was provided by Treisuri Taisaranakul, Deputy Government Spokesperson.
Travelers from India, Malaysia, the UK, Singapore and the US topped the list, she said. Thailand's tourism industry, which was nearly wiped out during the pandemic, expects average monthly arrivals to rise to around 1.5 million as the country waives travel pre-registration and mandatory health insurance from July 1.
Southeast Asia's second-largest economy has lifted most of its pandemic-era travel and business travel restrictions, and last week removed masks from its citizens and visitors, allowing pubs and bars to return to normal. The measures are part of an effort to bolster an economy that prior to the pandemic was heavily dependent on tourism and contributed about 12 percent of gross domestic product.
A weakened currency and the recent legalization of cannabis could also help bring more tourists back to Thailand, — such an opinion was expressed last week by the Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. According to him, the ministry has established a “conservative” forecast to attract 7.5 million foreign tourists this year, based on the assumption that there will be no Chinese tourists due to the COVID-Zero policy in this country, and due to the situation in Ukraine, there will be no tourists from Russia.
Chinese tourists accounted for almost 30 percent of the 40 million tourists Thailand received in 2019, before the pandemic, according to official figures.