Tourist arrival growth slowed in May, up 6.3% to 2.8 million, compared to 10% on average in previous months due to seasonal factors.
Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent secretary of the Tourism and Sports Ministry, said on Monday the low season, Ramadan and World Cup were among the negative factors weighing on growth.
Of all visitors last month, a majority of 2 million hailed from East Asia, followed by Europe, South Asia, America, Oceania, Middle East and Africa, he said.
The Chinese remained the largest group of tourists in Thailand.
“We believe the growth will start accelerating in August, bringing in 3 trillion baht in revenue as targeted,” he said.
Over the past five months, tourism revenue totalled 1.2 trillion baht, up 6%. Of the total, 800 billion baht came from foreign visitors while 350 billion was from local tourists.
For all of 2018, the ministry hopes to see 10% year-on-year growth in the number of visitors, or around 37-38 million.
As for secondary towns promotion, a policy championed by the government, spending grew 8.7% to 20 billion baht while the number of visitors increased by 5%.
The most popular secondary destination was Lop Buri, largely driven by the popularity of a period drama.