What Is The Importance Of Tourism In Thailand

But Thailand’s economy doesn’t only rely on its exportations. Tourism plays an important role in the economy of the country too, and its weight get bigger every single year.

2.2.Tourism Industry in Thailand

2.2.1.Key figures / une industrie de poids dans l’économie thailandaise

2.2.1.1 Gross Domestic Product

Tourism represents an important part of the Thailand’s GDP. Indeed, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the direct input of tourism in 2015 represented 9.3% of the GDP of Thailand , for an amount of around 1,250 billion of Bahts. This figure is expected to grow by 4.3% the following year. We can see how important tourism is for the economy of the country. Although, the figures are much higher when we take into consideration the total input of this industry in the GDP. Then, the percentage rise up to 20.8% of the GDP (almost 2,800

Europe arrives 2nd as the region of origin and provides “only” a bit less than 1 tourist out of 5 of the total number of foreign tourists. Indeed, East Asia is the region where 66.5% of the foreign tourists come from; but if we consider the region as the “Asia and Pacific” from UNWTO, it goes up to 74.3%, which means almost 3 out of 4 tourists. Therefore Asia plays a fundamental role in Thailand’s tourism.

If we now focus on the main countries of origin, and not only the main regions, what will come out is the fact that China is by very far the first provider of tourists in the country. In fact, 7.94 millions of arrivals came from China in 2015, which represents more than 1 out of 4 arrivals (26.52%).

Remark: Numbers issued from calculations based on data from Thailand’s Department of Tourism