Bangkok (Thailand) – February 4, 2019 (travelindex.com) – A strong increase in Chinese visitor numbers in December helped Thailand to finish 2018 with a total of 38.27 million arrivals and generate tourism spending of just over two trillion baht.

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Final arrival figures released by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports show that the number of Chinese visitors increased from 675,129 in November to 838,634 in December, ending the year with a total of 10,535,955, a 7.44% increase compared to 2017. Spending by Chinese visitors also jumped from 36.45 billion baht in November to 44.42 billion baht in December, reaching 580.69 billion baht at year-end.

Overall, the number of international visitors to Thailand increased by 7.54% compared to 2017, and estimated tourism revenue of 2.007 trillion baht rose by 9.63%. For the first time, ten countries and one special administrative region (China, Malaysia, South Korea, Laos, Japan, India, Russia, USA, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong) recorded more than one million visitor arrivals.

Summary of the most important results in 2018:

Overview: All regions recorded good growth, with the exception of the Middle East and Oceania. Visitor numbers totaled 26.06 million (+9.30%) from East Asia, 6.76 million (+3.86%) from Europe, 1.60 million (+3.82%) from the Americas, 1.98 million (+11.82%) from South Asia, 922,520 (-1.74%) from Oceania, 739,494 (-6.39%) from the Middle East, and 201,519 (+7.63%) from Africa.

In announcing the results, the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Mr. Weerasak Kowsurat, remarked that while these record figures were extremely good news, they also paved the way for Thailand to focus its future tourism development strategy on emerging destinations and niche markets with high spending potential.

As the travel and tourism sector has now established itself as an important economic factor, it is important to strengthen its foundations to make it "convenient, clean, safe, unique and sustainable", reduce income inequality, improve safety and promote staff development.

For 2019, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports forecasts 41.1 million foreign tourists (+7.5%), who are expected to generate 2.21 trillion baht in tourism revenue (+10%). This forecast is based on 11.69 million tourists from China (+11%), 11.31 million tourists from ASEAN countries (+10%), and 6.90 million visitors from Europe (+2%).