More than 6 million Chinese will visit Thailand as the country bounces back slowly from the coronavirus pandemic, a CIMB Thai bank researcher said.
CIMB Thai Bank PLC Vice President Amonthep Chawla on Sept. 23 forecast that Thailand would welcome 6.3 million Chinese tourists in 2021, helping push tourism’s share of the country’s gross domestic product back over 10 percent.
Next year won’t see a full recovery of the tourism industry, he said, however. Spending by Chinese falls short of that spent by Europeans, who likely won’t return to Thailand until late next year.
CIMB forecast 2020 GDP to fall between 7.5 percent to 8.9 percent, marking the country’s worst recession since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Amonthep expects 2021 GDP to rise 2.8 percent.
The Cabinet’s addition of four new public holidays – Nov. 19-20 and Dec. 10-11 – will have only a minimal effect on the country’s economy, he said.
More fiscal and monetary measures are needed the prop up the economy and employment, the bank added.
However, numerous political factors, at home and abroad, could impact the success of those measures.
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