Tourism Statistics Thailand 2000-2023

Last update this page : Januari 2024.

See graph of quarterly arrivals updated at bottom of page, updated till last quarter of 2023.

Latest :

Thailand has restarted its tourism industry for real in the middle of 2022, which showed arrivals of 11,153,026 people by the end of that year. Expectations were very high for 2023. Arrivals were steadily above 2 million visitors each month of the year and even passed the three million mark in December 2023. A total of 28,150,016 visitors arrived. This was an increase of 152.4% over the previous year. In the last year before Covid (2019) there were 39,916,251 visitors, so the present number is still 29.5% lower.

Despite this renewed interest in Thailand (despite geopolitical and financial crises abroad) was splendid. Nevertheless, the Thai government was not fully impressed. The revenue from tourism seems to be needed, and various measures were taken to promote the country for foreign tourists. Mainly it has become easier to get visas and allowed length of stay for citizens of many countries has been extended.
See quarterly arrivals at the bottom of this page. Arrivals in the last quarter of 2023 surpassed 8 million visitors.
The top 5 of countries whose inhabitants visited Thailand in 2023 (between brackets arrivals in 2019, and % change) :
1. Malaysia : 4,626,422 (4,274,458 ; + 8.2 %) : lots of day trips from the country bordering Thailand.
2. China : 3,524,095 (11,138,658) ;: - 68.4 %)
3. South Korea : 1,660,042 (1,880,465 ; -11.7 %)
4. India : 1,628,542 (1,961,069 ; -17 %)
5. Russia : 1,482,611 (1,481,837 ; +0.0005 %)
Europe : 5,962,234 (6,531,220 ; -8.7%)
Notes : China is clearly lagging other countries. We suspect Chinese people are traveling less in general, maybe because of the local economic situation. There was also a shooting incident in Bangkok, where a Chinese visitor was killed in a shopping mall, but we do not think this can have been a major factor. Anyway, visa are now easier for Chinese (and other) people to obtain. When reading local newspapers and listening to local news, Thailand is swamped by Russian visitors. In effect, there are about exactly the same number of visitors as before the pandemic (so relatively speaking...). European tourists have resumed visiting more than Asian tourists on average.

Tourist Arrivals last few Years before the Covid-19 Pandemic :

The number of tourists visiting Thailand increased from 35.35 million in 2017 to 38.28 million in 2018 and then 39.92 million in 2019. The increase in visitors from 2018 to 2019 was limited to 4.24 %, which actually was less than Thai authorities expected. The ever rising number of tourists arriving came to an abrupt end from March 2020 onwards. 2020 saw only a total of 6,702,396 tourists, almost all arriving in the first three months of the year. From March 2020 to end August 2020 no tourists were allowed in. Thereafter in the last three months of 2020 a total of 10,822 tourists arrived under very special stringent conditions.

Lots of people in the hospitality sector lost their jobs and/or are in dire straits. As 2020, 2021 was a dismal year with hardly any visitors arriving, but we had the 'opening' of the country as from 1 November 2021. This appears to have been an audacious move, since at the time of the announcement of the initiative, a new wave of Covid-19 (the delta strain) was hitting the country hard, much more so than during the initial infections during 2020. But it likely needed to be done, since lots of people (and a lot of smaller SME companies) have a significantly reduced income, and the government has limited resources to continue providing for them. However the impact of this relaxation of travel conditions was limited, with little effect on number of arrivals. Except for the last three months of 2021, monthly arrivals were between 5,000 and 20,000 each month, which for Thailand is a very low number. As seen in the graph before, some more tourists started coming during the last quarter of 2021. Things improved especially from the middle of 2022, when most restrictions were lifted.

In usual circumstances, tourism plays an important role in the Thai economy. The National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC, recently renamed from NESDB) stated begin February 2019 that Tourism accounted for 18.4 % (or close to one fifth) of the GDP of Thailand. It had risen from a level in 14.2 % of GDP just four years earlier. Thailand expected ever more income from its tourism sector. It was never enough. However, as we know now, the Covid-19 pandemic put an end to that, at least for the last few years.

A relatively recent development has been the ever increasing number of Chinese mainland visitors. They surpassed 10.5 million visitors in 2018, making up 27.5 % of the total. Their number increased further to 10.99 million in 2019, and the increased number of Chinese visitors was quite obvious on Bangkok's streets and in its shopping malls.

2022-2023 : TAKE-OFF ? :

There were modestly more visitors during the first quarter of 2022. 497,693 tourists arrived. As a result of reduced restrictions for travel, both in Thailand and worldwide, the number of visitors 'skyrocketed' to 1,582,257 in the second quarter of 2022. The number of arrivals further increased to 3,608,135 in the third quarter (when travel to Thailand for all practical purposes was unrestricted) and to 5,464,991 in the fourth quarter. The 4th quarter saw a reemergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in China, but soon after restrictions in China suddenly were lifted. The 4th quarter saw only 54,146 Chinese visitors. However, they started coming in earnest during the 1th Quarter of 2023, with 517,270 arrivals. Their reappearance is already quite visible in Bangkok. Nevertheless, since December 2022 till September 2023, the number of arrivals has been a stationary or slowly increasing. However, the last quarter (especially arrivals in December increased) saw more than 8 million arrivals.