Thailand Tourism

With arrivals on the increase from both well-established and new markets, 2013 looks set to be another record-breaking year for Thailand’s tourism industry. However, while the sector’s size has earned the tourism industry a place on the global top-20 list, officials believe the country could still close the gap on its rivals by becoming more competitive in key areas.

In a trend that has continued into 2012, Thailand’s remarkably resilient tourism industry showed itself to be largely unaffected by the country’s devastating floods last year, giving a strong performance that produced year-on-year increases in both arrival numbers and revenue.

Thailand’s tourism industry is showing early signs of bouncing back from last year’s floods, with figures confirming a significant year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in visitor numbers for the first 11 months of 2011. Statistics issued by the Department of Tourism show tourist arrivals were up 21.7% on the same period in 2010, which should go some way to allaying fears that the industry could suffer long-term fall-out from the floods.

Solid growth is expected in Thailand’s tourism sector this year, proving once again its resilience to natural disasters, political instability and economic slowdown.