Thailand welcomed 3.2 million international visitors in April 2019, representing a 3.31% increase year on year. 

The country’s tourism industry remains resilient despite Chinese arrivals in the same month falling by 8.9% year on year to 898,994. 

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism & Sports, overall spending also grew by 3.93% to B164,11 billion for April 2019, compared with B57.91bn last year. However, Chinese spending was off the pace with a 6.61% slump – from B51.92bn to B48.48bn.

Arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan in April clocked in at 154,636, demonstrating a respectable 28.24% and 8.8% spike respectively, while spending reached B6.37bn, a growth of 21.1%.

Thailand’s latest prioritised market, India continued to perform well accounting for 163,938 arrivals, which represents an impressive 35.1% increase for April year on year. 

While Japan also proved to be a major player in April with 149,597 arrivals, an increase of 25.61% from the same month in 2018. 

The Middle East as a combined source market achieved an impressive 12.74% growth in visitor arrivals (57,174) to the Kingdom for the month of April and an increase in spending of 17.66% to B5.12bn.

The Israeli outbound market to Thailand continues to go from strength to strength after being specifically targeted by tourism officials in recent years, with a 73.8% jump in arrivals to 20,656 and 77.27% growth in revenue to B2bn.

With an extended waiver of visa-on-arrival fees expected to boost international arrivals, China and India are likely to be the top priority markets to engage with this incentive scheme. 

Meanwhile, Russia retained its status as Thailand’s leading non-Asian market despite a 14.31% fall in arrivals for April year on year and a 13.12% fall in spending. 

Russians still visited Thailand in droves over the first four months of 2019 with 723,856 arrivals and B53,1bn spent, representing only marginal declines of 2.89% and 2.63%, respectively. 

Thailand remained a destination hotspot for a number of European markets in April including the UK (97,362 arrivals, up 12.32% year on year), Germany (74,980 arrivals, up 12.98% from April 2018) and France (64,322 arrivals, down 3.33% from the same month last year).

While the Australian and New Zealand markets both stabilised after sporadic performances in recent years, with a 2.5% increase to 75,202 arrivals and a 6.24% jump to 10,350 arrivals respectively. 

The markets of North America also fared well with US visitors increasing by 5.71% to 94,254 in April. Arrivals from Canada also achieved a marginal spike of 1.26% to 23,182.

The Ministry of Tourism & Sports is forecasting 41mn arrivals in total over the course of 2019, generating B2.2 trillion in revenue. 

While ambitious the target is still within reach as the international arrivals total for January-April stands at 13.99mn up 2.11% year on year and at present spending is at B737.91bn up 1.15% year on year. 

Sources: The Phuket News, Ministry of Tourism & Sports 

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