Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing yet again the state of Tourism here in Thailand and how East Asia is more and more becoming sort of a major source of Tourists for Thailand is probably the best way to put it. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thailand eyes B1.8 trillion in Tourism Revenue. Quoting directly: "Thailand is on course to welcome 12.2 million foreign arrivals in the last 4 months of 2024, lifting annual arrivals to almost 36 million and generating 1.8 trillion Baht in revenue this year according, to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Thapanee Kiatphaibool, TAT Governor, said the visa-free scheme, several festive events, and the rebound of international flights, reaching 82% of the 2019 level, should help to grow the market."

Yeah, I have got to say coming off of going through the hell that was COVID and just watching, I was truly worried at a certain point as to whether or not Thailand's tourism would recover at all because I mean when you knock something down to that level - and we did the videos in the moment - it was literally decimated, I mean it literally decimated the Tourism Sector. I was truly worried it would come back at all so to see it back to 82% of the 2019 level here in 2024, that is great news. Quoting further: "As of August 26th, foreign arrivals tallied 23 million for 2024 and bookings continue from East Asia, especially China, followed by Europe and South Asia for later this year." So interesting that, again I think it's noteworthy, South Asia as we have discussed in many other videos, India is turning out to be much more of a source of tourists than I think even the Thais initially thought, even within the Tourism Authority and other folks that study these things, they really came out of left field coming off of the COVID pandemic and we really saw a lot of them coming in and they bring in foreign exchange and they spend money, so it had a positive impact. Now we are starting to see more demand further from East Asia including China. It remains to be seen exactly what the numbers are going to look like. 

It's worth noting that high season last year was far better than we expected; in fact we came off of it beating the projected numbers. I think there's a very good chance we will beat prospective numbers coming off of this coming high season. Now that said, it's not a foregone conclusion and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.