By The Diplomat | Created at 2024-11-14 06:51:29 | Updated at 2024-11-23 09:55:06
1 week ago
Earlier this week, Thailand’s Cabinet approved two additional holidays for 2025, in a bid to stimulate domestic tourism and pull the country’s economy out of its post-pandemic funk.
Special holidays have been added on June 2 and August 11 of next year, both of them Mondays, in order to create four-day weekends along with the Queen’s Birthday holiday, which falls on June 3 and Mother’s Day on August 12. The government has declared an additional holiday for January 2, 2026, which will stretch the New Year break to five days (December 31-January 4).
Following a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told the press that the new holidays were intended to encourage people to take longer trips on the weekends.
The decision, while seemingly trivial, reflects the government’s urgent desire to stimulate growth in Thailand’s economically pivotal tourism sector, which by one estimate counts for around 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and nearly a fifth of its jobs.
Thailand’s tourism industry imploded during COVID-19, which saw international tourist numbers fall from more than 40 million in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, to 6.7 million in 2020 and then to a paltry 428,000 in 2021.
Given the importance of tourism to Thailand’s economy, which continues to grow at slower-than-expected rates, the Pheu Thai government has prioritized its recovery since taking office in September 2023. The government has temporarily waived visas for travelers from a number of countries, a policy that was made permanent for Chinese nationals in March. In July, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) announced a number of changes to its visa regime, increasing the number of countries whose nationals are eligible for visa exemptions from 57 to 93, who are now eligible to stay in Thailand for 60 days, up from 30 days previously.
It also introduced the Destination Thailand Visa, which allows foreign digital nomads, freelancers, and remote workers to stay in Thailand for up to 180 days per visit, on a multiple-entry basis, for a period of five years. On top of this, the TAT has taken steps to reduce bottlenecks at the country’s airports, particularly at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, where it has installed an automatic passport control system.
The measures appear to have had some effect in dragging up tourism numbers. According to Thai government figures, 28.15 million international visitors came to Thailand in 2023, up from 11.15 million in 2022. The growth has continued in 2024, with the number of foreign arrivals exceeding 29 million so far this year. The Thai government is confident that the country is on target to exceed its yearly target of 36.7 million, and will reach almost 38 million by the end of 2024.
Given this trajectory, some in the industry expect that 2025 could be the year that Thailand finally exceeds the record 40 million threshold set in 2019.
“Unless there’s an external event that we can’t foresee and unless we do something wrong, I think there’s a chance we’ll cross the 2019 number of tourist arrivals into Thailand,” Omri Morgenshtern, the chief executor of the online travel platform Agoda Holdings, told reporters in Bangkok last week. “Our data suggests that Thailand is very addictive. About 46 percent of travelers are coming for a second or third or fourth time.”
Breaking through the 40 million barrier would represent a psychological victory for the country, if not a full solution to its economic problems.
