BANGKOK, 29 October 2024: Thailand recorded 26,088,855 visits, from January to September 2024, a 30.09% improvement over the 20,054,665 trips recorded during the same nine-month period in 2023.
China led the five top source markets, delivering more than a million visits each, totalling 5,254,764 trips, an increase of 110.73% over the same period in 2023. Malaysia, in second place, delivered 3,742,474 visits, up 12.12. India was the third-highest supplier, with 1,536,196 visits, up 32.17%. South Korea was fourth with 1,382,785 visits, up 15.91%, and Russia was in fifth place, with 1,159,758 visits, up 16.94%.
Pre-Covid Thailand would count 10 country markets delivering a million or more visits each, an indicator that the country’s trajectory to recovery requires a Q4 boost if it is to reach its targeted 35 to 37 million visits in 2024.
Thailand’s trip tally APAC and SEA
Source: MOTS
While overland travel from Malaysia is motoring along mainly on travel by train and road to southern Thailand destinations, trips from Cambodia are negative, counting 414,920, a decline of 3.50%. Visits from Laos increased by 34.36% to 899,576 trips, and Myanmar, bogged down by civil war, delivered 399,548 visits, up 12.12%.
Pre-Covid era Singapore and Vietnam were robust Southeast Asian markets for Thailand. From January to September, Singaporean trips dropped by 1.82% to 697,886, and Vietnamese visits declined by 4.93% to 786,032.
Region-wise, most visits to Thailand are sourced in Asia-Pacific markets, with 19,430,322, an increase of 33.34% over 14,572,177 trips registered from January to September 2023. Europe represents another 4,967,374 visits, up 22.50% compared to 4,055,033 last year.
The two regions, Asia Pacific and Europe, have a combined total of 24.4 million trips, just 1.7 million short of the 26 million mark.
More needs to be done in the Americas to lift US trips in the fourth quarter. The region delivered 707,104, a 9.95% improvement during the nine months of 2024. Canada is the other robust market in the Americas, and with new Air Canada flights to Bangkok, arrivals should increase. For the first nine months, Canadians made 172,521 trips to Thailand, up 17.50%.
(Source: Ministry of Tourism and Sports Thailand)
