With travel back in full swing, Thailand has set itself the goal of attracting 39 million tourists this year, looking to achieve 3.5 trillion baht (€94 billion) in tourism revenue. With promising figures in the year so far, the southeast Asian country is well on its track to achieve, and possibly even exceed, the goal.

In the first quarter of the year, 9.4 million foreign tourists visited Thailand and, by 31 July, it reached the half benchmark of 20 million. However, with the high season yet to come in November and December, the outlook for year-end numbers seems more than promising.

1. New visa schemes

To help the industry recover faster, the country has been rolling out new visa exemptions and visa extensions. “Like everywhere else, the economy was badly affected right after the pandemic, but I think the tourism sector is the easiest one to recover, that’s why we focus on tourism”, H.E. Kanchana Patarachoke, Ambassador of Thailand to Belgium, and Ambassador-Designate to the EU, told Travel Tomorrow.

In July, 36 new countries/territories were included in the visa-free regime, bringing the total up to 93. Moreover, the stay for citizens from visa-exempt countries has been increased from 30 to 60 days, with extensions possible for another 30 days. Besides tourism visa, the scheme for digital nomads, remote worker, foreign talents, and freelancer so-called Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) has also been launched, with the permission to work and travel in Thailand up to 180 days for each visit for multiple times within the period of 5 years

“More and more people, especially the younger generations, like to be adventurous, they like to go out and explore other countries, they like to experience more than 3-4 days. It’s not just ‘touch and go’ anymore”, the Ambassador said about the increasing number of digital nomads going to Thailand, adding that the great internet coverage across the country also helps in attracting the remote workers.

2. Quantity vs quality tourism

In times when overtourism concerns and protests are spreading around the world, Thailand is not merely working on increasing visitor numbers, but on attracting tourists that spend more, to overall maintain tourism’s contribution to GDP, while managing destinations sustainably.

“It’s not the number that counts, it’s how much they spend. So we are not just looking for a high number of tourists to come, but we want quality tourists to come and we look to Europe for high quality tourists”, Ambassador Patarachoke explained. “Tourists from Europe especially look for experiences and to spend more days, they want to live with the local communities and learn from them, not just go and shop.”

3. One in five tourists is European

Out of the 20 million people visiting Thailand in the first half of the year, about 4 million came from Europe, mostly from the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland and Spain. Being previously appointed to Sweden, Ambassador Patarachoke happily stated that from a 10 million population, 100,000 Swedes visit Thailand each year.

Besides spending more, the other added value of European tourists is that many of them have been to Thailand more than once and, by now, they know the country well enough to seek lesser-known destinations and more interactions with local communities.

And, to ensure that destinations can remain sustainable even when large numbers of tourists are present, restrictions are started to be imposed in the most popular places. For example, some beaches are closed off during the fish mating season, which has rebalanced fish populations in coastal areas.

“We have learned that you should not open your beaches every day to tourists”, the Ambassador explained, adding that the closure for conservation has, in turn, made visitors ever more appreciative of and enticed to discover the wonders Thailand has to offer.