Tourism

“It will take several years for tourism numbers to recover” – BoT

Published

Monday, July 20, 2020 14:59

The Bank of Thailand chief says that “it would take several years for foreign tourist numbers to return to the 40 million levels”. The BoT says, that the coronavirus pandemic has heavily impacted a “lucrative industry” that provides a lot of jobs.

The BoT expects only 8 million foreign visitors this year, down 80% from last year’s record 39.8 million. Most of those visited Thailand before the lockdowns and border closures in March this year.

The BoT also reports that loans in the country will have to rise but “new steps should prevent them from surging”, according to BoT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob.

Whilst Thailand’s tourism industry has recovered from an array of critical hits on tourist traffic over the past few decades – the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, financial crash of 2008, coup to oust the Thaksin government in 2006, Phuket boat disaster in 2018, military coup of 2014 – it always seems to recover bigger and better from the tourism challenges. Thailand’s rise and rise in tourism numbers, over 30 years, despite the problems, has earned the Kingdom’s tourist industry “teflon tourism”.

"It will take several years for tourism numbers to recover" - BoT | News by Thaiger

The list of the world’s most visited city by tourists in 2019 (Mastercard survey).

"It will take several years for tourism numbers to recover" - BoT | News by Thaiger

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6 Comments

rinky stingpiece

Monday, July 20, 2020 at 3:35 pm

interesting infographics…

Thailand’s march upwards in tourism over the last 20 years (particularly Chinese and Russian over recent years) looks like taking a serious correction back to the post Asian financial crisis times, when you could get 60-70 baht for a pound… of course that won’t happen until after the UK is cut loose from the EU and makes some trade deals with significant non-EU economies like Japan and USA.

all of this coincides with huge personal debt in Thailand and huge corporate debt globally, and a glut of unsellable condominiums and unrentable villas on the market.

Thailand 4.0 can’t come soon enough for them… I hope Thailand makes an TFA with the UK so there can be some capacity building and an easier time for the significant numbers of Brits in Thailand. Thailand’s first treaty with the UK was back in the 1800s… there’s a decent amount of history between the two countries.

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Toby Andrews

Monday, July 20, 2020 at 4:40 pm

Yes there is a decent amount of history.
The Thais sided with the Japanese when the British were losing, and after they saw which way the wind was blowing, and after the Allies bombed Bangkok a few times, the Thais treacherously slipped back on the British side keeping it secret from the Japanese.

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- rinky stingpiece
  
  Monday, July 20, 2020 at 11:46 pm
  
  So why stay?
  
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- rinky stingpiece
  
  Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at 3:25 am
  
  The Thais sided with the Japanese when the Japanese effectively invaded Thailand to pass through it, and Phibun had no choice but to accept Finlandisation, it wasn’t to do with Britain. Are you going to smear all the countries who were occupied by Axis powers as “treacherous”, or pragmatic?
  
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  - Toby Andrews
    
    Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at 11:53 am
    
    Thailand did a deal with the Japanese to aid them, and Thailand invaded Burma.
    The paid a penalty to Britain at the end of the war of goods and rice for this.
    I ma not going to smear all countries occupied by the axis, just Thailand.
    
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payutpai

Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:28 pm

i won’t believe numbers anounced by a military dictatorship who did nothing in 6 years exept money extorsion for their own profit, it’s easy to anounce 40 millions tourist if you count every border cross for one extra tourist, in 2019 alone i cross thai border 5 times, many chinese come in thailand on a week end, several times in a year, all the workers from neighbour country have to come and go through the border to renew their visa, the army want to see the investor coming with their cash, so they annouce crazy numbers to make them dream…

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