Tourism News
Thailand tourism news, travel updates, visa policies, and destination highlights—stay informed on hospitality trends, cultural experiences, and major infrastructure projects. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for Thailand travel news.
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Sponsored Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?
Thailand’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...
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Thailand’s weak baht could have a silver lining in the tourism industry, THA says
There might be a silver lining to Thailand’s weakening baht for the tourism industry. The president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA) says the weakening baht is one of several factors making Thai tourism more attractive in post-pandemic times. THA president Marissa Nunbhakdi says that now the ‘Test & Go’ and ‘Thailand Pass’ schemes have been scrapped, momentum has built…
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Airport expansion plans hastened across Thailand
With High Season approaching and the Thai government predicting big numbers, airport expansion plans are being fast-tracked. One of Thailand’s goals as international travel begins to return in greater numbers is to become a transport hub for Southeast Asia. To help realise the goal and make room for an influx of travellers, facilities are being expanded in both domestic and…
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Tourist breaks Singaporean law by consuming cannabis in Thailand
A Singaporean tourist says she didn’t mean to consume cannabis in Thailand in July. Weed might be legal in the Land of Smiles, but it is still a crime for Singaporeans to consume cannabis at home and abroad. Sueanne said she ate a “very nice bowl of noodles” in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, that were so delicious that she ordered…
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Phuket real estate shifts tide in wake of urban flight
Urban flight and a continuous stream of incoming lifestyle residents to Phuket are dramatically shifting Southeast Asia’s leading resort real estate market landscape. The new island property mantra is dominated by surging demand for single-family homes and larger condominiums. Phuket has witnessed a sharp change from 2019 when over 9 million tourists sought a place in the sun, highlighted by…
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Carnival Magic theme park opens in Phuket to fanfare
After launching on Tuesday, the bright and energetic new theme park Carnival Magic has attracted local Thais and international tourists flooding to Phuket. The park is the first of several scheduled to open throughout the country in the next few months as tourists return to Thailand and companies race to provide exciting new attractions for them. Safari World is the…
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Military conscription in Russia could benefit Thailand’s economy
Thailand could be an attractive and realistic option for men fleeing military conscription in Russia. Reports say that men are fleeing Russia after President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to conscript 300,000 civilians into military service in Ukraine. Several European countries such as Lithuania have already closed their doors to Russian citizens, citing widespread support for Putin’s unprovoked invasion of…
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Artists create sci-fi versions of Bangkok
Several artists are creating sci-fi versions of Bangkok in their work. Two filmmakers, a painter, and illustrators are imagining Bangkok with ghosts, AI, and snow in Bangkok. One filmmaker, Stephan Zlotescu, has produced a film about an AI robot falling in love with a woman in Bangkok. The AI takes over a man’s body to pursue the woman. The film,…
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TAT looks to draw more Japanese tourists to Thailand with new campaign
The Tourism Authority of Thailand is looking to draw in more Japanese tourists. TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn announced that TAT will introduce a new partnership campaign in the last three months of the year called “It’s Time to Go To Thailand”. The campaign aims to increase Japanese tourists’ average spending per trip, which right now is only 6,400 baht, the…
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New plans to expand Bangkok’s nightlife tourism
New plans are underway to help expand Bangkok’s nightlife tourism. Bangkok Governor Chadchar Sittipunt said yesterday that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is talking to experts about decorating some areas so they can become attractions. These are mainly spots in downtown areas and riverside zones, he said. Chadchart has also announced a plan for Bangkok to become a sister city of…
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TAT expects Phuket Vegetarian Festival to make over 3 billion baht
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) says it expects Phuket’s upcoming annual vegetarian festival to rake in more than 3 billion baht of visitor money this year. The festival will be held from September 26 to October 4. Some 81,429 travellers on 506 international flights are due to visit Phuket during the festival. Meanwhile, 110,165 domestic travellers are due to…
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Agoda: Thailand leading Asia bookings post-pandemic
Popular booking website Agoda says Thailand is one of the first Asian countries to see tourism rebound after the Covid-19 pandemic. Omri Morgenshtern, Agoda’s chief executive says even though the inbound search rate for Thailand on the website was 39% lower than in the same period in 2019, it has begun to rise since the beginning of 2022. “Thailand is…
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Tourism is rebounding but travellers expected to spend less
A government spokesperson is saying that tourism is nearly back to pre-Covid levels, though the Ministry of Tourism and Sports expects travellers will spend less money than previously predicted. Since January, 5 million international travellers have now landed in Thailand, about half the amount the government forecasted by the end of the year. One million tourists entered during September, garnering…
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Tour bus incentive by TAT hoped to spur domestic tourism
In their latest effort at pumping up domestic tourism numbers, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is teaming up with bus operators to send out convoys of coaches around the country. The TAT hopes commissioning over 500 tour buses will not only put to work bus drivers and other associated workers but also spur interest for Thai people to hop…
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World record petrified tree to become geological tourist attraction
After being certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest petrified tree trunk log ever found anywhere in the world, officials in the province of Tak are developing plans to turn the tree site into a geological-based world-class tourist attraction. The world record was verified in July in Tak, a northern province of Thailand lying on the…
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Shrines preparing for Phuket’s upcoming vegetarian festival
Phuket‘s annual vegetarian festival is right around the corner, coming up on September 26 to October 4. Now, city workers and volunteers are helping Chinese shrines prepare for the festival. Yesterday, teams helped scrub the forecourts of the main shrines participating in the celebration, including the Pud Jor and Jui Tui shrines in the main city district. Phuket’s Vice Governor…
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Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket to open new theme parks
So many businesses in the entertainment sector were flattened by the Covid-19 global pandemic. But with tourism beginning to pick up, and sunny predictions for the fourth quarter after a rained-out third quarter of 2022, theme parks and water parks are pumping money into a flood of new attractions in Thailand in the coming months. Current theme parks have been…
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Green Expo Returns to PHIST, Southeast Asia’s Leading Sustainability Forum
Press Release Banpu NEXT, is a leading smart energy solutions provider in the Asia Pacific under Banpu PCL. As the long-term partner in clean energy technology, Banpu NEXT creates total Smart Energy Solutions to help customers across industries and stages of business operation and achieve their ESG/SDG goals and build up values and opportunities for sustainable business growth while bringing…
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China Airlines opens a new route to Chiang Mai
China Airlines yesterday announced the good news that it intends to launch flights to Chiang Mai in Thailand. The bad news is that it won’t happen until next year. The Taiwan-based airline revealed on the day it reopened its borders that flights to the northern city of Chiang Mai take off on January 20 next year. Flight CI851 from Taiwan…
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The return of the begpacker sparks online debate
While the Covid-19 pandemic brought tourism to a screeching halt in Thailand much to the detriment of millions of people’s livelihood and the country’s economy, one thing that the majority of people did not seem to miss has now reared its ugly head again. Social media erupted over the return of the much-maligned begpacker trend as photos of one in…
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More tourists are venturing into rural Thailand, says Airbnb
Airbnb says more tourists in Thailand are opting for ‘off-the-beaten-track’ destinations, benefiting the environment and local economies. Thailand’s usual top tourist destinations are places with international airports – Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui and Phuket. According to Airbnb, more tourists are venturing out of these hubs and into “lesser-known” destinations such as Koh Lanta, Trat, Pai and Cha-Am. Koh Lanta…
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Thailand rekindles historical ties with Greece
Thailand’s Governor of Tourism was in Greece today to meet his Greek counterpart in a bid to resurrect tourism and promote the previous historic relationship shared between the two nations. Yuthasak Supasorn met with Olympia Anastasopoulou, General Secretary of Tourism Policy & Development, in the Greek capital to revive a tourism cooperation memorandum signed by both countries 16 years ago.…
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Small hotels call for looser regulations to allow them to be legal
Hot on the heels of the Ministry of Interior proposing to loosen laws that would let small hotels operate more simply as homestays, a coalition of hotel associations is calling for a relaxation of building guidelines that have made 20,000 small hotels illegal. The group of 10 hotel and tourism associations submitted a letter on June 29 to the prime…
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Brit stranded in Thailand after tour operator removes flight
A British taxi driver is furious he’s been stranded in Thailand after his tour operator cancelled his flight home. Paul Henstock, from the Midlands, revealed he is supposed to be on his dream holiday after a tragedy almost left him permanently disabled. The 54 year old said he’d saved hard for the 10 weeks’ trip after an accident in the…
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Study uses mobile data to improve domestic tourism trends
A new study used mobile data from mobile operator DTAC’s customers to analyse their movements and extrapolate strategies for increasing domestic tourism within Thailand. The study was conducted by Chulalongkorn University, the National Digital Economy and Society Commission, and Boonmee Lab, and used data from June 2020 to October 2021 of 10% of DTAC’s customers who fit the travel parameters…
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Bridge over troubled waters for Thailand-bound Russian snowbird tourists
Russian travellers have ritually sought out islands in the tropical sun since the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Hellbent on escaping bitterly cold winters, these snowbirds in the lead-up years to the pandemic became the second largest international source market for Phuket’s mass market tourism surge. Now, coming out of the pandemic in the age of a return…
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Phuket hotels team up with HSMAI for digital tourism and travel marketing workshop
Phuket’s tourism industry continues to wait and wonder when Mainland Chinese will be allowed to travel overseas, in the wake of China’s zero-Covid policy. As Thailand’s leading resort island moves towards the high season, hoteliers are looking to bridge the China gap and look to new markets to replace the expected lower volume of travel-challenged Russian tourists. Addressing these challenges is…
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Driver who blocked van at Phuket pier: “We are NOT taxi mafia”
A scuffle between taxi drivers at the Rassada Pier in Phuket on Friday, with three female and one male tourist trapped in the middle, has taxi drivers at the pier arguing that they are not mafia. The travellers had just returned from Koh Phi Phi just after 10am and chose not to use their transportation from the stand at the…
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Thailand to boost tourism revenue by hosting Indian weddings, says TAT
Indian weddings are a “multi-billion dollar industry” that Thailand plans on tapping into, according to Deputy Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Siripakorn Chaewsamoot. The TAT said they want to bump up Thailand’s tourism revenue for 2022 up to 600 – 700 billion baht (US$16 – 19 billion) by the end of the year by targeting high-spending groups…
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Budget airline Thai AirAsia X to launch two Thailand – Australia routes
Budget airline Thai AirAsia X will launch two direct routes between Thailand and Australia in December. The airline will fly from Bangkok to both Melbourne, and Sydney, beginning December 1 and 2 this year, respectively. The Bangkok to Sydney route will fly four times per week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The Bangkok to Melbourne route will fly thrice…
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New direct bus from Don Mueang Airport to Pattaya
Budget punters rejoice – a new shuttle bus will now whisk people directly from Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok’s low-cost secondary airport, to the tourism and nightlife hub of Pattaya. The shuttle started trial runs earlier this month and, if successful, may usher in a chain of other convenience bus options from the popular airport, according to the Don Mueang…
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