See quarterly data from 2009 till first quarter of 2015 at bottom of this page. 2013 saw the highest number of arrivals yet at 26.7 million arrivals.
During 2014 arrivals decreased to 24.78 million (-6.66%).
(Arrivals decreased by 10,28 % in the first three quarters of 2014. The end of 2014,saw an increase in arrivals,compared with the previous year)
Arrivals increased to 7.876.726 in the first quarter of 2015,up 23.5% from the corresponding quarter in 2014 (at time of political unrest).
Boom Years for Thai Tourism Industry -
2014 less so than previous years,but End of Year sees Recovery
International arrivals to Thailand from 2000 to 2014 show a significant rise from 2000 onwards. If we take the year 2000 as an easy benchmark with 10 million visitors at the time,we reached 26.74 million visitors in 2013,an increase of 167 %. Arrivals decreased by 6.66% during 2014,in the year that saw massive political demonstrations,followed by the military taking over the government. A recovery occurred in the final quarter of the year.
Temporary dips in arrivals occurred (see graph below) :
SARS 2003
Post-Tsunami 2004
Global recession and riots in Thailand 2009
Riots and political uncertainty in 2010,major flooding of a large part of Thailand and northern Bangkok end 2011,and political demonstrations end 2013 and ongoing into 2014. Anti-goverment demonstrations occupied most of the first half of 2014,and were followed by declaration of martial law,and a military (bloodless)Coup d'Etat on 22 May 2014.
See also these separate pages :
Tourist arrivals by Region and Nationality. Growth markets
Revenue from Tourism by Visitor's Country of Origin
At bottom of this page : current problems with tourism to Thailand
This page has been abbreviated from previous versions. More elaborate descriptions for past years can be found here :
Source :Department of Tourism,Thailand
Yearly Tourist Arrivals in Thailand from 2000 till 2014
The Office of Tourism Development website has recently been updated and shows arrival statistics. The excel files on the website provide data in English,but navigation to get there is in Thai language only.
It is safe to say that health scares and the global recession had a more pronounced impact than the local political uncertainly,riots and demonstration. Thailand experiences an unstable political scene,but overall fortunately the tourism industry continues to grow with a moderate hick-up during the first three quarter of 2014.
Tourism Industry in Thailand
Thailand's tourism industry contributes a big chunk to the country's GDP. While about 10 years ago,the industry contributed about 6.5% of Thailand's GDP,lately we can estimate that it contributes between 9 and 10 %.
When seeing the number of tourists,and the number of tourist destinations and hotels,one would actually expect an even more substantial portain of GDP. But Thailand's tourism industry,while very visible,brings inless money than other service industries,and certainly less than its manufacturing industry.
Totalling everything,in 2012,tourist revenue amounted to a staggering 983,928 billion Thai baht. This was more than 34 billion U.S. Dollars at the exchange rate at the time. On average,visitors spend about 4,800 Thai baht per day,and stay about 10 days.
Interestingly,the tourism sector does not only depend only on foreign visitors. The number of domestic tourists actually dwarfs the number of foreign tourists. But domestic tourists (mostly Thais) do spend much less per day and their trips are shorter,on average two days and a half. In 2007 there were reportedly more than 83 million in-country travel trips. This created 380 billion baht in revenue.
Average daily expenditure was around 1770 baht per person in 2007.
Updates on tourism income and arrivals by nationality and region for 2012.
Quarterly Arrivals from 2007 till First Quarter of 2015 :
Thailand has a tourist season when more visitors arrive. As you can see below,the number of visitors is almost consistently higher during the first quarter and the last quarter of each year. This coincides with a more pleasant climate in the country ('cold' season),and less favorable weather conditions in Europe,and large parts of Asia,like China and Japan.
We figure that Thailand missed out on in between 1 and 2 million potential extra visitors in both 2009 and 2010. The same is probably true for end 2011 with the major floods,and end 2013-begin 2014 with the political uncertainty.
It is interesting to know that negative factors seem to loose influence in just 2 to 3 months each time,with visitors resuming their interest in Thailand as a major tourist destination thereafter.
Since end November 2014 till present (May 2014) there have been continuous anti-government demonstrations,led by former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban. The political upheaval surely affected the tourism industry,with various foreign goverments issuing travel warnings. The House of Representatives (Parliament) was dissolved on 9 December 2013. Elections were scheduled on 2 Februari 2014,but were disrupted and later invalidated by the Constitutional Court.
Caretaker prime minister and several other ministers were removed from office by the Constitutional Court,because of a controversial transfer of a security officer in 2011. A new caretaker prime minister was installed. Both anti-goverment demonstration and also demonstrations by pro-government Red Shirts continued unabated.Martial Law was declared by the Royal Thai Army on 20 May 2014.
The above contributed to a decrease in travel arrivals during 2014,spread over the first three quarters of the year. During the first 9 months of 2014 around 2,000,000 less tourists arrived in Thailand,or a decrease of -10.28% when compared with the same period of 2013. To put it into perspective,the number of arrivals in 2014 is still clearly higher than in 2012.
Gloom and doom were clearly reversed during the last quarter which saw the highest number of arrivals in a quarter ever. Arrivals increased by 6.5% compared to the previous year. This looks very promising for 2015. As before,tourism picks up about 2-3 months after stability in the country has been restored.
See graph below,showing a dramatic increase of visitor in the last quarter of 2014,and the first quarter of 2015 (highest number of arrivals ever).
Quarterly Tourist Arrivals to Thailand from 2009 till first quarter of 2015
Numbers show number of tourist arrivals (in millions). Dates of political unrest and untoward events :
2009 :most negative events 11-12 April
2010 :most negative events :around 19 May
2011 :flooding of Central Thailand and part of Bangkok Oct-Dec
November 2013-May 2014 :political demonstrations,political upheaval Martial Law imposition 20 May 2014.
The first three quarters of 2014 saw a drop in arrivals when compared with the corresponding quarters in 2013 (-10,28% or about 2 million visitors less). However a few months after the military Coup d'Etat,during the final quarter of the year,tourism recovered.
The first quarter of 2015 saw the highest number of arrivals ever,a good start to the year indeed.
Current problems with tourism to Thailand :
The number of arrivals of tourists to Bangkok and Thailand is ever rising. The flipside is that more and more (relatively unskilled and low-paid) employees are dependent on the tourism industry.
From 2012 onwards,there are at least two problems that are unlikely to be solved soon :
1) Suvarnabhumi Airport is at or above capacity. Plans are there for expansion and this will surely happen but will take time. The old international airport Don Muang is being upgraded and is used for budget and in-country flights. Since there is no fast link from the new to the old airport,at one point this may create problems with incoming international passengers,who need connecting flights.
Visitors not likely will see the logistics behind an airport working at full capacity,except notice that the airport is a busy place. What is a bit related,though not fully,are the poor immigration services. On repeated occasions,this has made headline news locally. Long queues are created for both outgoing and incoming passengers. What is most disturbing,is that visitors can notice long queues on the one hand,and empty immigration boots on the other hand,that is,not enough immigration officers are working at busy times. The immigration officers reportedly also complain about a stressful situation. At one time,a 'fast track' for paying visitors was heavily promoted,which really was borderline ridiculous,but we understand is also a practice at other locations.
It has to be said that immigration procedures have changed over the last few years,and are a bit more time-consuming. Photographs are taken,and it won't be long before everybody gets fingerprinted.
At present,the problem seems to have improved,less complaints in the Thai English-language media.
The advice :arrive at the airport well on time.
2) For YEARS,Chiang Mai and surrounding areas have made the news with complaints of hazy skies,and dangerously high particle levels in the air. This year again (the period of the year when it occurs seems to be between Januari and April) air pollution levels (yes,quite a few people need hospital treatment) remained poor for many weeks. The reason is the rather medieval practice of burning waste of farm crops. Mostly in Thailand,also in neighboring Burma. On top of that,companies have been accused of burning forest land,to prepare it for planting crops to be used for alternative fuel production. The irony of this statement should not be lost on anybody.
What is most disturbing is that this problem has been there for many years now,and often reported,at least in the local press,but there seems to be no relevant action taken against waste burning. I guess,nobody wants to upset the farmers.
2015 shows the same problem persisting with slightly less coverage in th