BANGKOK — Southern Thailand’s tourism industry is showing strong signs of recovery in Q3 2024, with overall tourist numbers up 140% compared to the same period in 2023.
Suksit Suvarnditkul, President of the Southern Thailand Hotel Association and Vice President of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), revealed on August 5 that the overall tourism situation in Q3 2024 is considered the green season or rainy season, resulting in a slight slowdown in tourism compared to normal situations.
However, compared to the same period in 2023, the recovery rate is 140% overall. Some markets, such as China, have recovered only 55%, the lowest among foreign markets, while South Korea is at 63%.
Other markets have recovered better than 100%, especially Russia, India, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, the United States, and South Korea, with recovery rates over 100% compared to 2019, before COVID-19.
The South hasn’t been significantly affected by flooding, but heavy rainfall has impacted travel, both commuting and tourism, requiring more travel time due to increased traffic congestion.
In Q3 2024, the occupancy rate is about 60%, similar to Q2 but 5-10% better than 2023. July saw an increase in Middle Eastern markets including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Israel, and Qatar, as they prefer to visit during Thailand’s rainy season due to extreme heat in their countries.
For Q4, entering the high season, occupancy rates in November and December are expected to improve to 70%-80%.
The diversity of markets visiting Southern Thailand has increased, evident from the variety of airlines. Currently, there are over 50 international airlines with 4,720 flights, and 6 domestic airlines with 4,016 flights, connecting over 60 cities worldwide. This amounts to about 280 flights per day with a total of 45,000 passengers daily.
The increase in passengers, flights, and airlines leads to an increase in tourists. Compared to the high season, which sees about 50,000 passengers per day, the main limitation for increasing flights and passengers is having only one runway and 34 parking bays.
Overall, the number of passengers in 2024 is about 45,880, up from 42,835 in 2019, representing a recovery of 107.11%.
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