Thailand pivots from China to Southeast Asia, Middle East tourists amid arrival decline

Thailand cut its 2025 foreign arrival forecast from 40 million to 35 million due to safety concerns for Chinese tourists after incidents like actor Wang Xing’s kidnapping

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Chinese tourists and others wait to visit the Emerald Buddha Temple inside of the Grand Palace, next to a tour guide sign written in Chinese characters. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:16pm, 14 Jul 2025

Thailand aims to boost tourist arrivals and spending from the Middle East and Southeast Asia to help offset declining revenue, largely caused by a drop in visitors from China.

“The Middle East market is a supporting factor helping to boost tourism revenue as it currently has a growth of about 17 per cent to 18 per cent,” Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Thapanee Khiatpaibool said on Monday. “We need to increase the volume of arrivals from the Middle East and airlines.”

The Tourism Authority lowered its 2025 foreign arrival forecast to 35 million, down from 40 million, due to weaker-than-expected Chinese tourism. Total revenue is projected at about 2.8 trillion baht (US$86 billion), consisting of 1.6 trillion baht from foreign visitors and the rest coming from domestic travellers.

China sent 2.3 million visitors to Thailand in the first half of 2025, down from 3.4 million a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. The decline is linked to safety concerns. News of Chinese actor Wang Xing’s kidnapping to Myanmar through Thailand and his subsequent rescue prompted a wave of Lunar New Year trip cancellations by mainland travellers.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand lowered its 2025 foreign arrival forecast to 35 million, down from 40 million, due to weaker-than-expected Chinese tourism. Photo: EPA-EFE

Attracting Chinese tourists remains a priority, but the agency is also targeting other markets, Thapanee said. Oceania and Southeast Asia are seen as pivotal for boosting demand and offsetting the drop in Chinese visitors.

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