Thailand Increasingly Dependent On Tourism As Global Slowdown Affects Exports

Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Thailand’s finance minister, says that tourism is Thailand’s hope but the country has yet to attain the pre-pandemic level of visitors, indicating that there is still a considerable distance to cover.

According to the finance minister, the crucial tourism sector’s recovery is expected to assist Thailand’s economy in growing by 3.8% this year, while inflation is projected to lower down to its target range. This was announced on Saturday.

While discussing on a Radio Thailand program, the finance minister also said that there has been a rise in domestic spending, and the government intends to hasten investment in major projects to foster growth.

Despite the commencement of recovery in its tourism sector, Thailand, which is the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, experienced weaker-than-anticipated growth of 2.6% last year, trailing behind other countries in the region.

The finance ministry has predicted that 27.5 million foreign tourists will arrive in Thailand this year, following the country’s surpassing of its 2022 forecast with 11.15 million visitors. However, this number is still considerably lower than the pre-pandemic level of almost 40 million foreign tourists in 2019.

Earlier this month, Arkhom informed Reuters that the return of Chinese tourists could exceed economic growth projections. On Saturday, he cautioned that aggressive interest rate hikes would result in higher business costs and household debt, given that the central bank intends to keep raising rates to contain consumer prices.