Visitors from India, Malaysia lead Thai tourism boom as curbs ease

BANGKOK • Indians and Malaysians are leading a tourist rush to Thailand after it relaxed entry rules, with total arrivals topping two million since the start of the year and providing a fillip to the nation's sluggish economy.

Foreign tourist arrivals totalled 2.03 million between Jan 1 and June 26, deputy government spokesman Traisuree Taisaranakul said in a statement on Monday.

Travellers from India, Malaysia, Britain, Singapore and the United States topped the list, she said.

Thailand's tourism industry, which was nearly decimated during the pandemic, expects average monthly arrivals to surge to about 1.5 million with the country scrapping pre-travel registration and mandatory medical insurance from July 1.

South-east Asia's second-largest economy has rolled back most of the pandemic-era curbs on travel and businesses, and last week lifted a mask mandate while allowing pubs and bars to return to normal operating hours.

The measures are part of Thailand's efforts to shore up an economy which depended on tourism to generate about 12 per cent of gross domestic product before the pandemic.

A weaker currency and the recent legalisation of cannabis may also help bring back more tourists to Thailand, Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said last week.

The ministry has set a "conservative" forecast of 7.5 million foreign arrivals this year, based on the assumption that Chinese tourists will remain absent due to their country's zero-Covid policy, and factoring in the war in Ukraine, he said.

While Thailand is unlikely to see pre-pandemic levels of tourist arrivals without Chinese visitors, a gradual easing of travel curbs for students and business executives and the resumption of flights between the two countries offered optimism for the second half of the year, Ms Traisuree said in a statement on Sunday.

Chinese tourists made up almost 30 per cent of the total of 40 million tourists Thailand received in 2019, according to official data.

The wearing of masks is now voluntary nationwide in Thailand, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said last Thursday, ending a mandate first imposed in June last year.

In addition, pubs, karaoke outlets and other entertainment venues were allowed to resume their usual operating hours.

Nightlife venues in the country's main tourist destinations were allowed to reopen earlier this month but ordered to shut at midnight before the curbs were lifted.

BLOOMBERG