Thailand hits 7 million international tourists

Thailand’s tourism has hit another milestone. As of October 26, the kingdom witnessed 7,349,843 international tourists arriving, surpassing the 7 million mark. It’s put the country within its goal range set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of 7 to 10 million visitors for 2022. The TAT announced that over 7 million tourists have arrived since January 1 in a new press release.

The top five ports of entry included Thailand’s three international airport hubs and two land crossing checkpoints. As expected, Suvarnabhumi Airport brought in the most people, over four times more than the second busiest port of entry, Phuket International Airport. Bangkok’s secondary Airport Don Mueang International Airport brought in just over half as many as Phuket.

By land, the Malaysian border checkpoint of Sadao saw about 80% as many tourists as flew into Don Mueang. The Nong Khai Border Checkpoint on the border with Laos saw about half that amount of international tourist arrivals, according to Thai Business News.

Thailand has seen a boom in tourists since dropping all remaining restrictions for international travel. The dreaded Thailand Pass is long gone, and tourists are no longer required to take any Covid-19 test before arriving or even show proof of vaccination.

To give tourism an extra kick, authorities raised the initial stay for visa-exempt countries from 30 days to 45 days for those entering between October 1 and March 31 of next year. Those international tourists eligible for a visa on arrival will see their initial stamp increase from 15 days to a 30-day entry.

FLIGHTS AND LAND CROSSINGS

International flight routes are coming back and bringing more and more tourists too. Thai Airways, which is in the process of settling a restructuring, announced flights to 34 countries throughout Asia, Europe, and Australia and even added flights to some of the more popular routes. Other airlines are adding more international routes to bring tourists to Thailand as well.

By land, Malaysia still dominates the foreign visitor statistics. With quick, easy holidays just a border hop away, 1,246,242 Malaysian visitors have arrived this year. That is 16.95% of all international tourists from around the world. About 9% of visitors to Thailand were from India, with 661,751 tourists arriving.

Land crossing has been popular, with Lao PDR (538,789 – 7.33%), Cambodia(373,811 – 5%), and Singapore (365,593 – 4.97%) rounding out the list of the top five source markets of tourists into Thailand.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thailand hopes to boost its tourist numbers even further with the number of upcoming holidays, events, and international meetings. The APEC Economic Leaders’ Week is scheduled for November 14 to 19 as Thailand hosts APEC and all of its meetings.

Art lovers can enjoy the Bangkok Art Biennale taking place now until February 23. And the beginning of next month will see the country celebrating the Loy Krathong holiday nationwide along with the Yi Peng lantern festival.