The rapidly growing middle-class in India is fuelling a growth in tourists, who are choosing Thailand as their top holiday destination. 

According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) during 2018 arrivals from South Asia grew by a strong 11.82 percent to 1.98 million; with India topping the list -- up by 12.83 percent to 1.59 million.

The Minister of Tourism and Sports Weerasak Kowsurat said the figures were extremely good news, they had set the stage for Thailand to refocus its future tourism development strategy towards emerging destinations and niche markets with high spending potential.

He noted that the TAT was regularly monitoring the global trends to take advantage of emerging opportunities, like the ASEAN and Indian markets.

In a speech during SATTE India 2019, Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Deputy Governor for the Marketing Communications said Thailand has emerged as the most popular tourist destination for Indian travellers. 

“We have seen growth in the number of Indian travellers and 2018 was a phenomenal year for us as the preliminary figure from January to November of Indian visitors shows a growth of 12 percent, taking the figure to 1.42 million,” he said.

Due to the latest exemption of the visa-on-arrival fee, Thailand has welcomed 143 thousand applicants from Indian visitor which shows a growth of 63 percent compared to December 2017. 

Media outlets report while China remains an important market -- the growth in visitors will stall in the coming years. Meanwhile, India is set to become the new expansion story in Thai tourism, an industry that contributes up to 17 percent of gross domestic product annually.

Source: SATTE India, Tourism Authority of Thailand, The Thaiger

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