The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has revealed that over 800 billion baht worth of revenue was generated by the tourism sector during the first four months of this year.
Commenting on the tourism sector’s performance between January and April 2017, Permanent Secretary for Tourism and Sports Pongpanu Svetarunda reported that there were more than 2.8 million foreign arrivals during the period. The visitors brought in approximately 840 billion baht of income to the country, an increase of 4.68 percent compared to the same period of last year.
Of all the foreigners, 1.8 million came from East Asian countries, mostly China. Although the number of Chinese tourists was found to decline slightly following the clampdown on zero-dollar tours, it was offset by the rising number of European visitors, who contributed to revenue of over 600 billion baht.
According to Svetarunda, it is expected that arrivals from China will rebound from June onwards after the ministry continues to promote tourist confidence by ridding the Thai tourism industry of illegal practices and scams.
