The View | How Thailand, India and Japan illustrate Asia’s patchy recovery in hospitality

Thailand’s resilience in the face of an eventful 2025, India’s uneven boom in branded hotel supply and Japan’s record visitor numbers amid a row with China are deserving of attention

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Tourists dressed in traditional Thai attire visit the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun) in Bangkok, Thailand, on January 19. Despite the multiple challenges it faced, the land of smiles still managed to welcome 33 million tourists last year. Photo: EPA

Published: 4:30pm, 26 Jan 2026

The post-pandemic recovery in Asia’s hotel industry is patchy. While international tourist arrivals in some countries surpassed 2019 levels some time ago, most markets have yet to experience a full return to pre-Covid levels.

According to CBRE, only three of the 13 major markets in the Asia-Pacific region – Japan, Vietnam and South Korea – welcomed more overseas tourists in the first half of 2025 than in the corresponding period in 2019. All three have cheap currencies that made them more affordable for travellers, CBRE said.

The Thai baht, by contrast, has risen to its strongest level against the US dollar in five years. Thailand suffered a succession of blows last year. The high-profile kidnapping of a Chinese actor, the deadly earthquake in Myanmar that damaged skyscrapers in Bangkok, the border conflict with Cambodia, severe flooding in the south of the country, and a seemingly never-ending political crisis contributed to a 7.2 per cent fall in tourist arrivals last year. This was the first annual decline in a decade outside the pandemic.

Vietnam, which is “firing on all cylinders”, according to JLL, welcomed 21.2 million tourists last year, a record high. Its biggest source market, moreover, was China. While Chinese tourist arrivals in Thailand fell 33.6 per cent to 4.5 million, they rose 41.3 per cent in Vietnam to 5.3 million.

An ambitious economic and structural reform drive in Vietnam has accentuated Thailand’s long-standing infrastructure investment gap. Although Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy is a popular holiday destination, secondary cities have failed to develop the urban infrastructure needed to support growth.

“While Vietnam is at a much earlier stage in the [development] cycle, it already has 12 international airports. Airlift is everything,” said Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}The View | How Thailand, India and Japan illustrate Asia’s patchy recovery in hospitality

The View | How Thailand, India and Japan illustrate Asia’s patchy recovery in hospitality