Thailand has initiated innovative approaches to entice tourists for short, medium and long-term stays. The country offers numerous beaches, tropical forests, cultural attractions, shopping, medical and wellness programmes for tourists and MICE tourism. This country note examines Thailand’s efforts to boost domestic tourism and maintain its strong presence in medical and wellness tourism, as well as the challenge of making its urban areas more appealing for tourists.
Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2023
Reviving Tourism Post-Pandemic
Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India
Thailand
Source: OECD Development Centre based on data from UNWTO (2022), “Global and regional tourism performance” (database), UN World Tourism Organization, https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/global-and-regional-tourism-performance (accessed on 26 November, 2022) and WTTC (2022), “Thailand 2022 Annual Research: key highlights”, https://wttc.org/DesktopModules/MVC/FactSheets/pdf/704/219_20220613171313_Thailand2022_.pdf.
Introduction
Current situation and policy challenges
Increasing domestic tourism
The Thai authorities have made every attempt to reinvigorate tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated the industry. In order to drive domestic tourism, Thailand is investing in infrastructure and incentive programmes to entice the average Thai to travel within the country at least three times a year. The government’s initiatives, including We Travel Together and Khon La Khrueng subsidy programme, have helped raised Thais’ confidence about travelling (TAT News, 2020). The Khon La Khrueng subsidy programme offers locals THB 150 (Thai baht) per person per day for purchases of food, drinks and general goods, with a THB 3 000 limit per person. We Travel Together programme provides discounts on hotel rooms and restaurants as well as flight refund. To further stimulate domestic travel, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and stakeholders can consider initiating additional special incentives to motivate Thais to travel such as offering special rates for locals, encouraging more educational tours for students and businesses, or working with industry partners in promoting travel packages and vouchers.
Urban tourism approaches
Thailand’s National Strategy (2018-37), which sets the country’s long-term direction, address urban planning via themes on Smart Livable Cities and Special Economic Zones (PHANNISA, 2020). Primarily focused on sustainable growth and improving competitiveness, the plan also calls for environmental care while developing economic hubs that can become global nodes.
In conjunction with urban planning, Thailand’s tourism development strategy is all inclusive and aims to protect the environment as well as people’s livelihoods. In a recent report (Srisorn, Chayaon and Punluekdej, 2020), the authors make four recommendations focusing on tourism, which could also be implemented in urban tourism strategy:
government support in urban areas with the purpose of creating an area identity
development of storytelling or a record of site history that links the area to tourism interests
initiation of cluster tourism within urban centres in tandem with ASEAN’s growth plans and tourism touch points, to strengthen regional tourism
support for entrepreneurs who are propelled by investment and an interest in creating a cultural identity within a city area.
Medical and wellness programmes
Thailand remains at the top of the medical tourism league. Medical and wellness programmes for tourists generated USD 1.8 billion in 2019, and the country plans to focus on adding higher value to these services in the future (Tatum, 2022). With 67 medical centres accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), Thailand ranks top among Southeast Asian countries (Figure 5.4).
Figure 5.4. JCI-accredited health care centres in Southeast Asia
Source: The ASEAN Post (2019), “Medical tourism on the rise”, 27 July 2019.
Thailand possesses a range of tourism products for convalescing patients and visiting family members. While Thailand’s government was not previously fully involved in co-ordination, structural planning and investment in medical tourism, it is reportedly putting in place infrastructure and a visa policy to push the destination as a prime choice for medical tourists (Pattharapinyophong, 2019; Consultancy Asia, 2018). An example is the Smart Visa for professionals working in the medical profession or investing in the health care sector. Such programmes should continue, as they help improve the country’s medical tourism sector.
References
Consultancy Asia (2018), “Government to push Thailand and premier medical tourism centre”, Consultancy.asia, 1 May 2018, https://www.consultancy.asia/news/787/government-to-push-thailand-as-premier-medical-tourism-centre.
IMF (2022), “World Economic Outlook Database”, (accessed October 2022).
Pattharapinyophong, W. (2019), “The opportunities and challenges for Thailand in becoming the medical tourism hub of the ASEAN region”, Journal of Management Sciences, Vol. 6/1, https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/msj/article/view/204141, pp. 1-16.
PHANNISA (2020), “Trends in Thai urban planning 2021, through visualizations”, https://phannisa.com/2020/01/12/trends-in-thai-urban-planning-2020-through-maps/.
Srisorn, W., S. Chayanon and T. Punluekdej (2020), Thailand’s Tourism Development Strategy, International Academic Multidisciplinary Research Conference in Switzerland 2020, https://www.sau.ac.th/graduate/PDF_Research/ResearchAJ/Research-%20(19).pdf
TAT News (2020), “Thai government policy fuels domestic tourist confidence in December”, Tourism Authority of Thailand, 7 December 2020, https://www.tatnews.org/2020/12/thai-government-policy-fuels-domestic-tourist-confidence-in-december/.
Taturm, M. (2022), “How South East Asia is rebooting medical tourism in a pandemic world”, BMJ, Vol. 378, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35793823/.
The ASEAN Post (2019), “Medical tourism on the rise”, 27 July 2019, https://theaseanpost.com/article/medical-tourism-rise.
UNWTO (2022), “Global and regional tourism performance” (database), UN World Tourism Organization, https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/global-and-regional-tourism-performance (accessed on 26 November, 2022).
WTTC (2022), “Thailand 2022 Annual Research: key highlights”, https://wttc.org/DesktopModules/MVC/FactSheets/pdf/704/219_20220613171313_Thailand2022_.pdf.