Thailand attracts nearly 6 million foreign tourists in first eight weeks of 2024

Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand welcomed nearly six million foreign visitors between January 1 and February 25, Minister of Tourism and Sports Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol has said.

She added that those visitors have generated revenue of around 290.92 billion THB (8.07 billion USD) for the Southeast Asian countries.

In the first eight weeks of this year, China was the top source market for foreign tourists to Thailand with 1,114,316 arrivals, followed by Malaysia (759,828), Russia (397,006), the Republic of Korea (387,475), and India (293,129).

From February 19-25, foreign arrivals totalled 763,855, down 8.19% from the previous week or by 68,134 people, bringing the average number of foreign arrivals per day to 109,123.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports expects foreign arrivals to rise again this week from February 26 to March 3, thanks to the permanent visa waiver deal for Thai and Chinese citizens, and the increasing number of flights to Thailand to be offered by several airlines.

Thailand and China have agreed to waive visa requirements for their citizens permanently from March 1, which comes just after the earlier visa-free policy expires.

The Thai government’s visa-free policy has been implemented since last September beginning with a 5-month visa exemption for visitors from China and Kazakhstan, followed by India and Taiwan (China) in November.

The ministry has set a revenue target for 2024 of 3.5 trillion THB, including 2.3 trillion THB from 40 million foreign arrivals. Domestic tourists will contribute 1.2 trillion THB from around 200-220 million person-trips./.