Thailand saw a record 38.27 million tourists in 2018, up 7.5 percent from the previous year, according to Thailand’s Tourism Ministry. The ministry expects the number of tourists visiting the country this year to increase by 7.5. Thailand’s December tourist arrivals were 3.85 million, the ministry said in a statement. For 2019, the ministry expects 41.1 million tourists to spend 2.21 trillion baht ($70.18 billion).
The number of visitors from China – Thailand’s biggest source of tourists – is projected to rise 11 percent to 11.69 million, it said. Foreign tourist receipts account for about 12 percent of Thailand’s gross domestic product. For the first time, 10 countries and one SAR territory (China, Malaysia, South Korea, Lao PDR., Japan, India, Russia, USA, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong SAR) generated more than 1 million visitor arrivals.
From Europe, Russia remained the largest source of tourists to Thailand, with 1.47 million arrivals in 2018, followed by the UK with 987,456 arrivals and Germany with 889,777. From the Americas, just over 1.1 million Americans visited Thailand in 2018, compared to 276,543 tourists from Canada. From Oceania, 801,637 and 116,835 tourists visited Thailand from Australia and New Zealand, respectively.
