Thailand is expected to welcome 3.5 million foreign tourist arrivals in February, a 5% increase year-on-year, with all major markets surging between 2% and 20%, except the Chinese market, which is on course to plummet by 7% due to safety concerns, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
TAT governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said Germany and Japan are projected to secure the strongest growth of 20% and 18%, respectively, compared to the corresponding period last year.
It is estimated that about 124,000 German tourists will visit Thailand in February, behind Russia, the largest long-haul market, which is expected to record moderate growth of 3% to 211,000.
For Japan, the positive momentum continues from the final quarter of 2024. The number of Japanese visitors should reach 123,000 in February, said Ms Thapanee.
Despite a 7% contraction, arrivals from China will remain the largest inbound market with 630,000 arrivals this month. Other short-haul markets in the top five include Malaysia (513,000), South Korea (198,000), and India (170,000).
Under this scenario, the overall number of tourists in the first two months should reach 6.9 million.
Ms Thapanee said the resumption of flights was attributed to the growth of inbound markets as ticket bookings this month surged 14%, aligning with a 15% increase in seat capacity to 4.3 million seats. However, this still lagged the 5 million seats recorded in February 2019.
She said the upcoming White Lotus Season 3 TV series filmed in Thailand should help stimulate the market over the next few months.
The factor to watch for over the coming months would continue to be the Chinese market situation. Even though this market continued to grow at a rate of 30% during the Chinese New Year holiday, it fell below expectations as the TAT previously forecast growth of between 60-70%.
In terms of the domestic market, Ms Thapanee said there should be at least 33.9 million trips in the first two months of 2025, up 2%, generating 169 billion baht, an 8% increase.
Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said the average occupancy rate of Thai hotels nationwide stood at 74% in January and is expected to fall to 68% this month.
He said most hotels earned more revenue from all markets in January, except the Chinese market, which was the only market that remained unchanged.
Mr Thienprasit said 70% of hotels are expected to increase their room rates in the first quarter.
About 40% of them aim to raise their room rates by 5%, while 13% would like to increase their rates by between 6-10%. Some 16% of hotels wish to increase their rates by more than 10%, the majority of which are four-star properties or above.
