The total number of tourist arrivals and revenue generated for the country during the first half of 2019 show limited growth compared with figures for the same period last year.
The number of Chinese arrivals fell by nearly 5%, however growth by Indian and Japanese arrivals grew by 24.1% and 10.83% respectively, according to the latest statistics released by Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS) on July 22nd.
The figures compare the first half (H1) of 2018 with the first half (H1) of 2019.
A total of 19,769,347 tourists visited Thailand from Jan-June (H1) this year, up 1.48% on H1 2018, the MoTS reports.
Total revenue generated through tourist arrivals for H1 2019 was given at 1.0224 trillion THB, also up 0.94% for the same period last year, the statistics showed.
The growth comes despite arrivals from Mainland China falling 4.73%, from 5,931,153 during H1 2018 to 5,650,474 in H1 this year.
Spending by Chinese tourists during the half also fell, from 323.46 billion THB last year to 310.47 billion THB this year (-4.02%).
Asian source markets still held strong, with arrivals from Hong Kong increasing 5.83%, bringing an 8.4% increase in spending.
Likewise, visitors from Japan rose by 10.83% for the six months year on year, from 779,925 to 864,379, bringing a 14.57% increase in spending during the six mo nths, from 32.58 billion THB last year to 37.32 billion THB this year.
Arrivals from Russia fell 2.99%, from 850,989 last year to 825,556 this year, with a 4.1% fall in spending, from 64.35 billion THB in H1 2018 to 61.713 billion THB in H1 this year.
European arrivals also fell year on year, down 1.86%, from 3,537,934 last year compared with 3,604,954 in H1 last year. Spending also fell 2.33%, from 264.962 billion THB in H1 2018 to 258.779 billion THB in H1 2019.
Visitor arrivals for all the Scandinavian source markets fell year on year: Sweden -10.65 %, Denmark -3.25%, Finland -14.91%, Norway -0.18%.
However, visitor arrivals from the UK rose 1.38%, from 497,862 last year to 504,754 this year, with a 1.3% increase in spending, from 39.89 billion THB last year to 40.40 billion THB this year.
Arrivals from Eastern Europe also rose, by 4.25% year on year, with a 1.26% increase in spending to 21.818 billion THB.
Also growing were arrivals from the US, rising +4.8% year on year to 595,226 in H1 2019, spending 45.287 billion THB in the first half of the year
The number of visitors from Australia, however, continued to fall, from 384,644 in Jan-June 2018 to 377,260 this year (-1.92%), with a corresponding fall in spending from 31.04 billion last year to 30.39 billion this year (-2.09%).
Meanwhile, visitor arrivals from India during H1 2019 continued to boom, from 788,703 last year to 978,785 this year (+24.1%), with a 27.54% increase in spending from 30,857 billion THB last year to 39.354 billion THB this year.
| Country | Arrivals 2018* | Arrivals 2019* | % (+/-) | Spend 2018* | Spend 2019* | % (+/-) |
| China | 5,931,153 | 5,650,474 | – 4.7 | 323.46 | 310.47 | – 4.0 |
| India | 788,703 | 978,785 | +24.1 | 39.12 | 40.27 | +27.5 |
| Japan | 779,925 | 864,379 | +10.8 | 32.58 | 37.32 | +14.6 |
| UK | 497,862 | 504,754 | + 1.4 | 39.89 | 40.40 | + 1.30 |
| Europe | 3,537,934 | 3,537,934 | – 1.9 | 264.96 | 258.78 | – 2.33 |
| Russia | 850,989 | 825,556 | – 3.0 | 64.35 | 61.71 | – 4.1 |
| Australia | 384,644 | 377,260 | – 1.9 | 31.04 | 30.39 | – 2.1 |
| ALL | 19,769,347 | + 1.5 | 1.022 | + 0.9 |
*first half of the year
