Over 1 million Malaysian tourists have made their way to Thailand this year, and officials hope to keep pushing the numbers up. Between January 1 and October 7 this year, 1,041,293 Malaysian tourists arrived in the ‘land of smiles’.
Malaysian tourists in the kingdom are now venturing to more of Thailand’s provinces than they used to. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s deputy governor Malaysian tourists used to only stay in Songkhla during their holidays to Thailand. But now, they’re also exploring Krabi, Phatthalung, Phuket, Satun, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai.
The 1,041,293 Malaysian visitors are expected to have contributed about 26.6 billion baht of tourism income to Thailand, National News Bureau of Thailand reported. TAT now hopes to push the number of Malaysian tourists up to 1.8 million by the end of the year.
The number is expected to jump as Thailand enters the high season, which coincides with the school break in Malaysia. It also coincides with Diwali, Christmas, and New Year’s festivals. TAT deputy governor Tanes Petsuwan said that TAT will keep holding tourism promotion activities to work towards its goal of 1.8 million Malaysian tourists by the year’s end.
Last month, TAT said that Malaysians made up Thailand’s biggest tourist group this year. The next three countries with the most tourists were India, Laos, and Cambodia. It was reported that over five million foreign tourists arrived in Thailand between January 1 and September 8. TAT estimated that the number of tourists would reach 10 million, based on advanced flights and hotel bookings for the next three months.
We’ll soon find out if TAT can meet its goals of 1.8 million Malaysian tourists, and a total of 10 million foreign tourists, by the year’s end.