Thailand’s Tourism Crisis Narrative Is Wrong — Here’s Why
In this video, I break down the dominant media narratives around Thailand’s tourism decline in 2025 — and why they’re wrong.
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26 Comments
Yep – this is why you can't come to an accurate conclusion by looking at only a single number.
The pre-packaged tours, while contributing raw numbers of tourists, also likely resulted in much lower revenue, per traveler, into Thailand than most people think. Those tours are designed for profit-taking – charging high prices while delivering budget value. Since these tour companies were based in China, the real profit stayed in China.
Well researched, as always. Great work!
Thai Airways still using tourists to try pay off the money it got itself owing due to mismanagement! With a flight still around e1000 for econemy return to Europe is a joke.
You can go lots of places for that with a few weeks hotel thrown in. This entitlement has to stop or stay with asian tourists only
Many of Chinese tour group in the past was what we call “0 THB.” Tour group. Chinese tour company, Chinese tour group, Chinese airline, Chinese own bus, Chinese own restaurant, Chinese own shop, Chinese own hotel.
did we upgrade the camera???
As usual great insight mate, the Baht being too strong is not helping as an Australian years ago we got 30 to the AUD those were good times now seeing barely 20.80 , Australians are flocking to Japan – Im in Thailand right now for family but watching my spending
Quality Tourism. Not. Quantity Tourism. Many people that now visit Thailand do not fully appreciate exactly where they are, many lack respect for Thailand and the Thai people. I first visited Thailand in 1989..Many of these 'new' tourists wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes. Thailand is No1: Respect it.
The less crowded the better
It’s not safety concerns, it’s the Thai 🇹🇭 Baht appreciation that is killing the Thai 🇹🇭 tourism economy with competition from China 🇨🇳, Vietnam 🇻🇳, Japan 🇯🇵, South Korea 🇰🇷, etc ! Other countries in the world 🌎 are fighting tooth 🦷 and nail for tourists ! Sigh 😮💨
And then you have Indian 🇮🇳 tourists visiting Thailand 🇹🇭 that walks 🚶 at Pattaya beach 🏖 pull down their pants and poop 💩 on the beach 🏝 in front of other tourists ! Eww… 🤮
They are saying the same thing here in Las Vegas. Last year we had 39 million visitors. While tourism is down modestly from 2024’s ~41.6 million. The headlines are so hyperbolic. LAS VEGAS TOURISM IS DEAD! 39 Million is not dead. Yes, fewer people are coming due to political and ECONOMIC reasons.
When I went to Thailand in 2023 the THB to USD was 1 to 37. Now in 2026 is 1 to 31. No good
Is this an indication that the Chinese economy is not doing so great?
I was in Bangkok for 1 week self guide tour on early December, it was crowded in the city. Far from depicted as tourist slowdown that was widely reported. Even the skywalk near CentralWorld was crowded on weekend.
Great análisis thanks
Was heading to Bangkok from the U.K. this week with the golf clubs, changed the plans at the last minute and chose Kenya.
Glad I did, the golf courses here are actually better than Thailand and the Kenyans don’t take you for granted.
Indian is back!! They 1/3 spend per person vs Europe or usa ,Australia tourists.
I just saw in bkk 3 indian adults buying 1 whole chicken and eating together.
Good work Cal…well researched! I know Samui is suffering this year with a sharp decline in tourists
Also don't forget bangkok isn't cheap anymore. Your dollar doesn't go far. People go to japan now
Fantastic Report! Well founded insights here… you certainly have nailed the main issues of this complex subject. I wouldn't discount the forever changes within the Thailand tourist/immigration apparatus. The constant, persistent, changes to travel rules, makes planning a trip to Thailand nearly impossible at times. I suspect many "tourists" just skip the hassle for another destination.
I canceled my trip last year when my bank account was frozen and then they kept adding more hoops to jump through to keep a usable bank account. The increase of "hassle factor" is a major negative. I was planning on spending 3-5 months in Thailand with a budget of a million baht. Not a high roller, but far from a Cheap Charlie.
Chinese economy is In shambles. Thailand has invited the Punjabi people who will make up lost revenue from CCP China . Thailand will always have tourism!
Hi Cal, you are 100% "spot on." The 40M arrivals in 2019 was largely inflated by the Chinese government who allowed large Chinese tour groups to travel to Thailand, which resulted in over-tourism. Such a high growth in tourist arrivals is not sustainable in Thailand just as countries in the EU continue to experience. As you reported, China then fabricated news stories about Chinese kidnappings and arrests in Thailand to create fear in an effort to pull back on Chinese tour group arrivals in Thailand. Furthermore, the Chinese government withheld Chinese passports to prevent Chinese nationals from traveling abroad due to its own economic decline. Yes, a big distortion in the travel metrics caused by the Chinese government. As you said, tourist arrivals is the wrong metric, but tourism revenue is the much better metric for measuring growth.
Vietnam better in every way
Add this up. The total number of tourist in Thailand before pandemic (35m) are mostly shared by Chinese. Now they still have over 30m of tourists in this chaos world that full of economic crisis, wars, and tariffs without Chinese which is dramatically decreased. That's how impressive Thailand is. I love this country and hope they can maintain and upgrading in some flawed aspects. My second home shall rises!
Don’t worry Thailand, I’m on my way!!
I dont understand these scams, why even bother to try to convince someone to go there and then kidnap them, when there is already plenty of people on the ground?