Can tourism recover?
Despite a fall in Chinese arrivals after the zero-dollar tour crackdown, Thai tourism authorities are convinced that the market will return. The tourism boom is expected to continue in 2017 and remain a major growth driver for the economy even as the industry sees falling Chinese arrivals in the first few months. The crackdown on zero-dollar tours in September negatively affected arrivals from China, but authorities and private tourism operators are confident they will gradually return. The Tourism and Sports Ministry projects tourism revenue in 2017 will reach 2.71 trillion baht, of which 1.78 trillion will come from foreign tourists, growing 8.5% from 2016, and 930 billion will stem from domestic tourists, up 7.5%. This target has been increased from 2.6 trillion baht forecast earlier, and is 8.2% higher than the 2.5 trillion baht expected in 2016. The number of international tourists to Thailand is expected to reach 35 million in 2017, up from 32.5 million in 2016.
