Thailand expected to be in top 10 for long-term tourism growth
By  THE NATION

 

BANGKOK: -- THAILAND’S travel and tourism sector grew by nearly 11 per cent in 2016 and will be the world’s 10th-fastest-growing over the next decade, with an average growth rate of 6.5 per cent per annum, a new report by the World Travel & Tourism Council predicts.

 

Travel and tourism contributed Bt2.9 trillion to Thailand’s gross domestic product last year, which was 20.6 per cent of total GDP. Additionally, the sector supported more than 15 per cent of total employment last year, for a total of 5.7 million jobs.

 

Visitor exports 

 

The report also showed that visitor exports, which is money spent by foreign visitors in the country, grew by 13 per cent, generating Bt1.9 trillion |– 19.2 per cent of total |exports.

 

Investment in the sector totalled Bt245.5 billion, accounting for 7.1 per cent of all investment in the country. This investment served not only to boost inbound figures, but Thailand’s outbound expenditure grew by 10.7 per cent, showing that the country is not only an attractive destination in itself but that its citizens are increasingly exploring internationally, the report found.

 

This year, the sector’s total contribution to the Thai economy is forecast to grow by 6.9 per cent and to rise by 6.5 per cent per year on average |over the next decade to |Bt5.9 trillion, which would |represent nearly a third of GDP. 

 

The number of jobs in the sector is expected to rise by 6.9 per cent this year to 6.1 million and rise by 4.6 per cent per year to 9.6 million jobs by |2027 (24.9 per cent of the total number of jobs). 

 

This means that 3.9 million new jobs are expected to be created in Thailand by the sector over the next 10 years.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/EconomyAndTourism/30309808

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-03-22

Day dreaming?

i have never seen thai tourism quoted at 20% of GDP before. is tourism increasing or are farming and manufacturing decreasing to make tourism a greater proportion of overall GDP?

5 minutes ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

i have never seen thai tourism quoted at 20% of GDP before. is tourism increasing or are farming and manufacturing decreasing to make tourism a greater proportion of overall GDP?

It appears that  tourism is far outperforming other sectors that constitute GDP. As I have stated before this might become a headache in future years , not ideal to be unduly reliant one sector.

of course it will!

the country is so full of tourists it is getting difficult to even walk the streets never mind get a room anywhere. I just wish I had bought a bar a few years ago but now they are all taken...

1 hour ago, joecoolfrog said:

It appears that  tourism is far outperforming other sectors that constitute GDP. As I have stated before this might become a headache in future years , not ideal to be unduly reliant one sector.

tourism has always been a very small part of the thai economy if you can believe the numbers. the tax system is very patchy so how they measure the different sectors is a mystery.  would be surprising to see tourism over take farming and manufacturing.

1 hour ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

tourism has always been a very small part of the thai economy if you can believe the numbers. the tax system is very patchy so how they measure the different sectors is a mystery.  would be surprising to see tourism over take farming and manufacturing.

I haven't the least idea how they measure tourist income either, perhaps somebody can enlighten us.

Bottom line is that if the figures are correct then tourism income is rising twice as fast as overall GDP , that means other sectors are suffering. 

How are they expecting jobs to raise that much when unemployment is almost 1%? Who will fill those jobs?  I can't imagine they are allowing more foreign workers?

Ah.  So it's "long-term" tourism growth now. 

 

Kicking the can down the road, thai-style.

 

 

Still wondering what kind of weed is being smoked down at TAT and the Ministry of Funny Tourists ;-) 

6 hours ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

i have never seen thai tourism quoted at 20% of GDP before.

That caught my attention too.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports reported in February 2017 that the travel sector generated 17% of the nation’s revenue last year, earning 2.51 trillion baht from tourism. http://thainews.prd.go.th/website_en/news/news_detail/WNECO6002160010003

The current article reports last year revenues was 

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Travel and tourism contributed Bt2.9 trillion to Thailand’s gross domestic product last year, which was 20.6 per cent of total GDP.

So it might be that "Travel" (defined as land and air commercial transportation?)  is treated as a separate revenue center that contributed 3.6% GDP. Essentially TAT has doubled historical GDP revenues from Travel & Tourism.