Tourism-related businesses continued to thrive during the first five months of this year, especially foreign currency exchanges, travel agencies, tour guides, restaurants, and hotel, resort and condo companies.
According to the latest data from the Commerce Ministry's Business Development Department, the proportion of newly established businesses related to tourism accounted for 8.10% of the total, up 96.6% for the period.
Businesses involved in foreign currency exchange registered a 389% increase, followed by travel agency businesses with a 281% increase, while tour guide firms gained 225% and restaurants jumped 67.2%.
Hotel, resort and condo businesses increased 49.1% for the period.
The growth was attributed to the continuous increase in foreign tourists and the Thai economic recovery, reflected by a rising consumer confidence index, said Thosapone Dansuputra, director-general of the department.
He said the department expects registration of new businesses to reach 42,000-45,000 entities in the first half of 2023, and 75,000-78,000 entities for the full year.
In the first five months, the number of newly established businesses tallied 39,660, a rise of 17.9% year-on-year, the highest in a decade.
For the same period, registered capital amounted to 389 billion baht, up by 50% year-on-year.
The top three categories for new businesses during the period were general construction, real estate and restaurants, accounting for 7.57%, 7.33% and 4.69% respectively, according to the department.
In May, the registration of new businesses reached the highest level in the past 10 years, climbing to 7,437, gaining 26% year-on-year.
The combined registered capital for the month was 28.4 billion baht, up by 97.9% from the same month last year.
In terms of business types, the top three categories of new businesses in May were real estate, general construction and restaurants, accounting for 7.50%, 6.46% and 4.96%, respectively.
The department said 5,438 companies ceased operations during the period with a combined registered capital of 43.3 billion baht, down by 19%.
In May, the number of businesses that ceased operations totalled 1,234, up by 12% year-on-year, with the total registered capital of these discontinued businesses amounting to 8.23 billion baht, an increase of 119%.
As of May 31, there were 876,953 companies operating in Thailand with a total capital value of 21.3 trillion baht, according to department figures.