Foreign tourist arrivals Thailand 2015-2022
Fluctuations of international visitors
Thailand is one of the most visited countries in Southeast Asia. However, the country experienced a drastic decline in international arrivals due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 until mid 2022. Chinese visitors were the major contributor to the Thai tourism industry, and the number of Chinese visitors were forecasted to reach about 12 million in 2019. Although, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, this number significantly decreased in March 2020, when compared to the same month in the previous year.
The future of Thai tourism industry
With the globally wide-spread COVID-19 outbreak, the Thai tourism industry was heavily affected, due to global travel restrictions. In 2022, the Thai government eased COVID-19 restrictions, resulting in an increase of the annual volume of airport passengers in Thailand in 2022. The recovery of the tourism sector is expected to be further bolstered in 2023 by the return of Chinese visitors.