Chinese Tourists Elude Thailand in February 2019, Causing a Decline by More Than 10%

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports revealed yesterday that the number of tourists in February 2019 increased by 0.17% YoY after a high jump of 4.91% YoY in January 2019. However, the revenue from tourism decreased by 0.84% YoY in February when it was able to gain 2.39% YoY in January.

The most surprising part in February was that the number of Chinese tourists had declined by 12.29% YoY while the revenue from Chinese tourists also declined by 10.53% YoY as well. Unlike February 2018 that the number of visits made a jump for 51.95%, compared to February 2017 while the revenue from Chinese tourist only in February 2018 also increased by 55.45% YoY.

In January, Chinese tourists increased by 10.29% YoY and a revenue also increased by 4.69% YoY might have been from new year holidays, but to think that the number has plunged by more than 10% in February, considering the Chinese had 7 days off on the Chinese New Year along with the free visa, is a bad sign for Thai tourism.

Even though the February report of tourist arrivals in Korea and Japan has not been released, the two countries had quite a satisfying growth from Chinese tourist in January. Korea was able to record a 28.7% growth of Chinese tourists, compared to the same period of last year. As for Japan, the record showed that the number increased by 19.3% in January 2019 when compared to the same period of last year.

 

If this continues, the report of tourist arrival in 2019 would have turned out to be an unexpected disappointment.