Thailand’s tourism industry is crumbling

Posted by Anita Froneman on 9 February 2021

Thailand welcomed only 6.7 million tourists in 2020, a far cry from the nearly 40 million international visitors that entered the island nation in 2019. Last year yielded the worst numbers since 2008 when the country faced a political crisis, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

‘Just 346 overseas visitors have entered the country on average each month on special visas since October,’ the Thailand Long­stay Company told Bloomberg. ‘That’s well below the government’s target of about 1,200 and a tiny fraction of the more than three million who came before the pandemic.’

Thailand's tourism industry is crumbling

Thailand was one of the world’s most popular tropical island destinations pre-pandemic.

Travel experts believe this might well in part be caused by the country’s quarantine protocols. Visitors to Thailand have to quarantine for 14 days before being allowed to continue their holiday.

The Maldives in comparison, another popular holiday destination only requires tourists to present a negative PCR result to enter, and welcomed 555,399 visitors by the end of 2020 after they reopened borders in July, according to SCMP.

The results from South African Tourism’s Domestic Survey from 2020 showed that domestic travel in the month of August reached 62% of the 3,9 million trips seen in the same month in 2019, causing industry leaders to believe the country’s local travel demand is slowly picking up. 

According to Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), there has been an increase in domestic passenger movements between the months of June and September 2020.  All three international airports in South Africa, OR Tambo International Airport (ORT), Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) and King Shaka International Airport have seen a month-on-month increase in passenger numbers from June to September 2020.

Also read:

What it’s really like to work in tourism and hospitality right now

Picture: Pexels






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