(CTN News) – With 17.5 million visitors in the first half of 2024, up 35% from 12.9 million in the same period in 2023, Thailand’s tourism recovery continued to gain momentum.
If local, regional, and worldwide hazards and concerns are reduced or eliminated, Thai tourism is expected to reach 50 million by 2028, having returned to its 2019 level of 40 million travellers.
Thailand is developing into a destination worthy of the Alliance of Civilisations. The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s multifaceted marketing methods and the IGNITE Tourism Thailand initiative are firmly supported by its wide-ranging diplomacy and impartial foreign policy.
The most comprehensive visa liberalization measure in Thai tourism history, which went into effect on July 15, allows visitors from 119 countries to enter the country without a visa. This will open up several new markets and continue to draw tourists for a long time.
Thai Tourism: 50 Million Visitors by 2028 If Peace Prevails
Thailand now has an ideal blend of well-populated, quickly recovering short-haul markets, conventional long-haul markets that are losing market share but are still growing in size, and high-potential future markets in the Islamic world, Africa, and Latin America.
The country’s international position and two-way tourism will be enhanced by its efforts to become a member of the OECD, foster relations with the Islamic world, and get reciprocal visa-free access to the Schengen nations.
Except for winter travel, it offers an ideal range of goods and services to satisfy almost every desire, appealing to a wide range of societal demographics, genders, and economic levels.
The only things that may sabotage this promising development are either further regional unrest inside Thailand or a worldwide catastrophe like a pandemic, financial crisis, or war.
In remote nations, single incidents or outages are unlikely to cause more than a little blip. An extensive examination of the January–June tourist arrivals is provided below:
The data report on tourist arrivals has been updated by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to include more nations. These include Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Serbia, Croatia, Latvia, and Ethiopia.
Although they are all now low-volume source markets, they all have a lot of potential going forward, particularly now that everyone may enter with no need for a visa or one upon arrival.
Their inclusion on the statistics report card enables them to be targeted for further marketing initiatives.
General Consensus
In general, tourism will continue to be a top economic driver. However, given the extraordinary changes that are occurring in geopolitics, economics, demography, technology, and the environment, I anticipate the need for a significant structural redesign of the whole business.
Significant adjustments will also need to be made to the marketing and product development plans. Thailand will have to work much harder to minimize disruptions as it grows more and more reliant on tourism and exposed to it as a means of economic survival—just as it is to technology as a means of communication and commerce.
Maintaining internal, regional, and international peace will be crucial for the sustainability of the sector and, therefore, the economy. That will require a complete paradigm shift in the way the sector thinks, moving away from carbon neutrality and bean-counting and towards far more fundamental tactics intended to avert and anticipate dangers and hazards.
Source: Eturbonews
Anna Wong serves as the editor of the Chiang Rai Times, bringing precision and clarity to the publication. Her leadership ensures that the news reaches readers with accuracy and insight. With a keen eye for detail,
