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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Officials in eastern Thailand scramble to save tree from tourists
Officials in eastern Thailand are scrambling to save a lone tree on a tiny islet off Trat province from tourist destruction. The islet is only a few metres wide, with nothing on it except the tree and its roots. The director of maintenance at Koh Mak Tambon Administrative Organisation, Lertrob Saithongpu, said the wee little islet can only handle 5…
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Full Moon Party in Koh Pha Ngan sees double the tourists
The third Full Moon Party of the year on Koh Pha Ngan has drawn double the number of tourists to South Thailand’s Koh Pha Ngan since the first party back in April. Last night, about 20,000 visitors arrived on the shores of Haad Rin. The tourists passed through 5 checkpoints to be screened for weapons and drugs before they could…
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Government to temporarily waive TM6 immigration forms
PM Prayut Chan-o-cha briefed media yesterday after the cabinet’s weekly meeting and revealed the government has agreed to temporarily scrap the Tor Mor 6 immigration form. The TM6 form is the arrival/departure card foreigners fill in providing passport details, name and address, etc., on their entry and exit from Thailand. Deputy Government Spokesperson Traisuree Traisoranakul says scrapping the TM6 would…
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Phuket desperate for more skilled hotel workers
Hotel managers in Phuket are panicking over a skills shortage in their industry. According to some managers, many skilled and experienced staff left the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, hotels have the numbers of staff needed, but they have half the age and experience of former workers. The area general manager of Angsana Laguna Phuket, Michael Zitek, said at…
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1.4 million travellers have come to Thailand since January
Thailand has welcomed more than 1.4 million international travellers since the beginning of 2022, a massive increase from the 428,000 visitors during the same period of 2021. After the easing of restrictions, the tourism sector is gradually becoming more optimistic about the future, according to Tourism Authority of Thailand governor, Yuthasak Supasorn. The TAT target for the Middle East, Europe…
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Taxis don’t need to use their meters going out of Bangkok
Taxis licensed in Bangkok are now allowed to drive without using meters outside of the city’s 7 main provinces, allowing more service flexibility. Taxi drivers and passengers travelling outside of these 7 provinces will have to negotiate prices instead of using metres. The 7 provinces include Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Chachoengsao, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi. Taxis and…
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Central Pattana’s 10 billion baht investment in 37 new hotels
Central Pattana is launching 37 hotels in 27 provinces in Thailand with 4,000 rooms, valued at a total of 10 billion baht, under the Centara Hotels and Resorts brand. The kingdom’s largest retail property development and investment company aims to hire about 3,900 people across the country in the process. The company will focus primarily on second-tier locations, as it…
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Suvarnabhumi increases check-in counters in preparation for high season tourists
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport is increasing the number of check-in counters in preparation for an upcoming surge of tourists. But the ‘surge’ is still a few months away. The nation’s capital city is expecting around 70,000 travellers to arrive per day, and for it to increase to 100,000 people per day during the high season. Suvarnabhumi Airport General Manager, Kittipong Kittikachon,…
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Thailand exempts entry visa for Saudi tourists allowing 30-day stay
Thailand yesterday moved a step further to its future relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia when it announced a 30-day visa exemption will be available to all Saudi citizens. Saudis can now enter Thailand and stay for 30 days without applying for a visa before departure. The move comes as both nations step up to restore diplomatic relations which…
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5 million Indian tourists in Pattaya this year?
The Tourism Authority of Thailand is making optimistic predictions about Indian tourists arriving in the Kingdom, this time in Pattaya! TAT officials announced yesterday that TAT expects 5 million tourists to visit Pattaya by the end of this 2022. Just last week, TAT said that its goal for the number of Indian tourists in Thailand overall was 3,000 per day…
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Hospitels close the door on Covid and hotels reopen for business as usual
With Covid-19 projected to be labelled as endemic next month, hospitels and alternate quarantine sites have resumed normal operations. Hospitels are hotels that provided rooms for people who had mild Covid symptoms. They helped ease the strain on the kingdom’s hospitals during the peak period of the coronavirus pandemic. But now the service is consigned to history, according to the…
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Tourism minister calls for an end to the Thailand Pass scheme
The queue to beat up on the much-hated Thailand Pass is growing longer by the day. Now Thailand’s Tourism Minister is joining in. Tourism and Sports Minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakan, says he will use the next Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration meeting to push PM Prayut Chan-o-cha to pull the plug on the Thailand Pass digital gateway. If the scheme is…
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Another tourism goal for Thailand – 3,000 Indian tourists a day
Thailand’s tourism authorities seem to announce a new goal every day. While the Tourism Authority of Thailand is aiming for Saudi and Australian tourists in Phuket, TAT has also announced a goal last week for Thailand as a whole: 3,000 Indian tourists a day. The TAT is aiming to meet its goal through various promotional campaigns and special travel incentives.…
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Check-in mayhem for Thai Airways flights last Friday
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has ordered airlines and airports to make urgent adjustments after acknowledging long queues for Thai Airways flights at Suvarnabhumi airport. The early morning flight check in delays at the Thai Airways counters in Suvarnabhumi Airport was caused by a lack of check-in staff at the Thai Airways counters, according to the Civil Aviation…
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Don’t forget Bangkok’s first real Pride parade tomorrow
In case you didn’t know, Bangkok will hold its first real Pride parade tomorrow (Sunday), Bangkok Naruemit Pride, as a celebration of Thailand’s LGBT+ community. The parade is set to start at 4pm at Maha Uma Devi Temple, a Hindu temple sometimes called ‘Wat Khaek’ or ‘South Asian temple’ in Thai slang. The temple is located on Pan Road and…
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Phuket governor reverses decision easing mask-wearing
Easy come, easy go. Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew today reversed yesterday’s mask-wearing easing order, insisting people must wear a mask in all public places even if they are practicing social distancing measures. Only yesterday the governor relaxed all measures saying healthy people could to take off their face masks while in open-air places, beaches, public parks and stadiums, as part of…
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After Middle East, Thailand’s TAT brings tourism road show to Europe
After the Tourism Authority of Thailand travelled to Saudi Arabia in a roadshow last month, the TAT has now brought its tourism campaign to Europe. From May 23-25, the TAT travelled to 3 European countries to promote its campaign “Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters”. The campaign promotes medical tourism, beaches, and shopping in Thailand. In the European roadshow,…
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Popular tourist island off Pattaya adds hundreds of security cameras
Officials on Koh Larn, a popular tourist island off Pattaya, are stepping up security measures. The municipality has installed 200 CCTV security cameras at 7 beaches around the island. Meanwhile, authorities are working on renovating a pier on Koh Larn. Pattaya Deputy Manager Kiattisak Sriwongchai said the installation is almost finished, and the cameras will be fully working early this…
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Thailand’s tourism ranking drops down a notch
Thailand’s place on a list of countries ranked for travel and tourism development has fallen a notch below where it stood last year. Thailand fell from it’s spot in 35th place out of 117 countries in 2021, to 36th place, on the Travel and Tourism Development Index. The index is based on scores from 1-7, where 1 is the worst…
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Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand advises airlines of new entry rules effective today
International airlines have been issued with a notice from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, advising them of revised rules for entry to the kingdom from today. CAAT chief, Suttipong Kongpool, says all international airlines serving Thailand are required to screen and categorise passengers into 3 groups. The first group is the fully vaccinated passengers, who, if suspected of having…
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Foreign arrivals in April show things are looking up for tourism, the economy
Things are looking up for the Thai economy, thanks to an increase in foreign and domestic tourism in April, according to the Bank of Thailand. The Bangkok Post also reports a year-on-year increase in consumer spending during the month of April. The easing of travel restrictions has brought more foreign tourists to the kingdom, with numbers up from 210,836 in…
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The Thaiger partners with Boatcrowd to offer you a sailing experience of a lifetime!
Are you feeling the call of the sea? Dreaming of a vacation that includes feeling the fresh ocean breeze in your hair? Want to enjoy the magnificent scenery of sparkling blue water on a sailing trip? The Thaiger has just formed a partnership with Boatcrowd, an industry-leading boat rental platform, to offer the opportunity for the ultimate sailing escape. We…
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Transport Ministry expects 22 million travellers will pass through Thai airports in 2022
The Transport Minister, Saksayam Chidchob, says every airport in Thailand is ready to welcome more travellers entering from June 1. The Minister also set a target expecting 22 million travellers to enter this year. So far, the number has just clicked over the 1 million mark (mid-May). Yesterday, Saksayam visited Suvarnabhumi Airport for for an official before the changes to…
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Hotels are expected to see a large jump in earnings
Thai property giant Singha Estate predict a large jump in hotel revenue in 2022, and a considerable increase in real estate sales, following the return of international travellers after Thailand’s reopening. Once hotels revive, earnings from the hotel sector will increase from 4.5 billion baht in 2021 to 9 billion baht in 2022, according to the Chief Financial Officer of…
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Half a million Indian tourists to enter Thailand in 2022
Thailand hopes to welcome around 500,000 travellers from India by the end of 2022 after latest statistics revealed over 100,000 Indian tourists have entered the country since January. And it’s great news for the Thai economy as holiday makers from India have the potential to bring in over 22 billion baht in revenue. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is trying…
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Thai government expects 1 million tourists per month by the end of the year
The Thai government has refuted the opposition’s claim that it is ignoring the plight of the country’s tourism sector. According to a Nation Thailand report, spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana says the government’s decision to cancel Test & Go has revived the tourism industry, with around 20,000 foreign arrivals now entering the kingdom each day. Thanakorn adds that if this trend continues,…
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Thailand’s annual silk fair in Bangkok helps with ‘soft power’ scheme
The word ‘soft power’ has exploded into Thailand’s lexicon ever since young rapper ‘Milli’ promoted the country’s signature sticky rice and mango dish last month. In its soft power scheme, Thai authorities aim to promote the ‘5 Fs’ to the rest of the world. The 5 Fs are: food, films, fashion, fighting, and festivals. Now, Thai authorities say they will…
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Pattaya tourist says security guards beat him “bloody” near Walking Street
A Pattaya tourist says security guards beat him bloody over a near collision when he was driving near the city’s famous Walking Street in the early hours of this morning. The tourist, an unnamed 31 year old Indian national, said he almost collided with a group of security guards who were standing in front of a venue on Soi 16.…
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Bangkok’s first ‘real’ Pride parade coming up June 5
Pride month is approaching cities across the globe, including Bangkok! On June 5, the city is expected to host its first ‘real’ pride parade. Feminist activist Siri “Tata” Nilphruek said at a press conference yesterday that in the past, Bangkok’s pride parades were just street demonstrations. But this year, the organisers hope to make pride parade “an imporant event on…
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Tourists who went missing in southern Thailand park found safe
Yesterday, park rangers in Thailand’s southern province of Surat Thani found 2 tourists who had gone missing the day before. The women, 19 year old Eliza Rose and 19 year old Matilda Cox, got lost in a jungle in Khao Sok National Park in Phanom district. Eliza is a British national, and Matilda is from Northern Ireland. Eliza and Matilda…
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