Thailand ups 1Q tourist arrivals by 14% to 13.7 m

Thailand has reported that 13.7 million international arrivals visited the Kingdom in Q1 2018, up 13.9% over the same period in 2017.

This impressive growth was led by a 30% increase in visitor arrivals from China and 17% growth in arrivals from India.

In Q1 2018 an estimated 730.7 billion Baht was generated in tourism income, up 17.55% from the same period in 2017.

In April alone, international visitor arrivals totalled 3,092,725, up by 9.38% over the same period of 2017. The top ten source markets were China, Malaysia, Laos, Russia, India, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the United States and United Kingdom, respectively.

All regions grew except for the Middle East. Visitors from East Asia totalled 8,894,642 (+17.50%), Europe 3,006,525 (+9.75%), the Americas 599,431 (+3.55%), South Asia 607,379 (+15.18%), Oceania 296,741 (+0.26%), the Middle East 237,322 (-6.75%), and Africa 59,371 (+7.11%).

East Asia: East Asian visitor arrivals comprise the biggest market share of all visitors. A total of 8.89 million or 64.91% were from East Asian countries. China, Thailand’s top source market, recorded a total of 4,161,253, up by 30.56%. The other top sources of arrivals were Malaysia (1.14 million), Korea (617,287) and Japan (552,330).

ASEAN countries generated over 3.02 million arrivals, with spectacular growth by Cambodia (+25.10%), Laos. (+13.24%), Vietnam (+6.48%), Philippines (+5.77%), Singapore (+4.43%), Indonesia (+3.73%), and Malaysia (+1.58%). The only declines were from Brunei (-9.19%) and Myanmar (-3.07%).

Europe: European visitors showed a good growth rate of 9.75% to 3 million. Russia retained its status as the largest source market from Europe with arrivals of 745,398, up 25%. Germany was the second highest source market with a total of 386,951, up 7.73%, followed by the United Kingdom 371,054 up 0.44% and France 342,825, up 3.70%. Strong growth was also reported from East Europe (+13.95%) and Austria (+18.70%), Denmark (+7.99%), Finland (+7.96%), Italy (+7.68%), the Netherlands (+7.03%) except Sweden declined by 2.26%.

Americas: Arrivals from the Americas were up 3.55% to 599,431. The main market, USA, rose by 7% to 396,330. Arrivals from Canada were up 10.36% to 113,881. Declining source markets from Latin America included Brazil (20.28%) and Argentina (-25.71%).

South Asia: Arrivals from South Asia grew by a strong 15.18% to 607,379. India topped the list with arrivals up by 16.91% to 481,573. Other source markets, which generated growth in arrivals, included Bangladesh (+19.37%), Pakistan (+2.74%) and Sri Lanka (+1.27%). Only Nepal was down -0.42%. Oceania: Arrivals from Oceania grew by 0.26% to 296,741 visitors. Australian visitors were up 0.03% to 261,496. Arrivals from New Zealand were up 1.82% to 34,133.

Middle East: Arrivals declined by 6.75% to 237,322. Declining source markets included the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. However, some source markets were up, such as, Kuwait (+7.67% to 22,089).

Africa: Arrivals from Africa grew by 7.11% to 59,371.