Publication date: November 24, 2023 11:32
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said on Friday that Thailand will receive between 3.4 million and 3.5 million Chinese tourists this year, falling short of its target despite rolling out a visa-free program to attract Chinese tourists. announced that it is expected to.
According to the report, approximately 3.01 million Chinese tourists will have visited the country by 2023. China is a key source market for Thailand’s vital tourism industry, with 11 million Chinese tourists in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic, accounting for more than a quarter of all arrivals that year. Occupied.
Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT’s deputy governor for international marketing in Asia and the South Pacific, said at a press conference that “the slowdown in the Chinese economy has people worried about spending on tourism.”
He added that the recent shopping mall shootings in Bangkok had also affected tourist confidence.
He said the June TAT had predicted that there would be about 4 million to 4.4 million Chinese tourists this year. This fell short of the government’s original target of 5 million people.
Chattan said the total number of foreign tourist arrivals since the beginning of the year was about 23.88 million.
The government said 28 million foreign tourists arrived in 2019, a pre-pandemic record, and spent 1.91 trillion baht (US$54.37 billion). The target is the number of people arriving.