Thailand’s struggling tourism industry is being bolstered up with visitors from India, at the time when the Chinese tourist arrivals to the country are tumbling, dragging down the growth of overall tourist arrival to the Southeast Asian nation and dimming the outlook for an economy that relies on spending by holidaymakers.
This can clearly be noticed at The Vijitt Resort – a beachfront hotel on the tropical island of Phuket, as its occupancy rate from Chinese clientele has sabotaged, while bookings from India have begun to rise.
Confirming the status, Kongsak Khoopongsakorn, Vijitt’s general manager and vice president of the Thai Hotels Association said, “We’re starting to see new growth as Indians are now driving the industry growth like Chinese had done previously.”
Earlier with rising inbound Chinese arrivals, the country’s tourism industry had been expanding at about 10% a year. But the 2018 boat accident in Phuket which killed dozens of mainlanders, brought a drop in numbers and the country’s economy slowed down drastically.
To its rescue, Indian arrivals accelerated in recent months ; thanks to increasing number of direct flights, a visa waiver and the most significant one is the increasing economic standard of Indian middle class families.
As a result, about 1.3 billion Indian visitors have been recorded to be interested in visiting Thailand which enabled the Thai authorities to anticipate that, at least 10 million indian tourists to arrive in 2028, which is a more than five-fold increase on 2018 visits.
This sort of growth trajectory would mimic the rise of Chinese tourists, that showed only a 2 million growth within 10 years.
Although China will continue to be an important market, India, meanwhile, is set to become the new expansion story for Thai tourism now. Thailand’s food, shopping, and its beaches are the major attractions for Indian holidaymakers that draw them to the kingdom more in numbers.
