BANGKOK — Thai tourism authorities celebrated a milestone this week as Indian tourist arrivals to Thailand surpassed two million for 2024, prompting them to set a new target of 2.5 million arrivals for 2025. To achieve this goal, the government plans to remove regulatory hurdles, including easing restrictions on importing high-end jewelry for weddings in Thailand.
Minister of Tourism and Sports Sorawong Thiengthong hailed the two million Indian tourist arrivals as a historic achievement. The Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will continue organizing events and creating additional incentives in the coming year to reach their new targets.
The authorities will collaborate closely with the Indian Tourism Association and Thailand’s Indian diaspora community. Planned initiatives include promoting Indian festivals such as Diwali, hosting world-class concerts, and developing ‘Little India’ districts throughout Thailand.
Minister Sorawong highlighted that while the segment of Indian tourists visiting Thailand specifically for vacations and weddings is relatively small compared to total arrivals, their spending is substantial. A single Indian wedding typically costs between 7-10 million baht, spans approximately three days, and hosts around 150 guests.
To encourage more couples to spend their weddings and honeymoons in Thailand, the government will relax regulations on the import of high-end jewelry for weddings and focus on comfort and safety to make tourists feel as comfortable as if they were at home.
In addition, the government is considering offering airlines attractive incentives to increase the number of flights to Thailand. Thai Airways, for example, currently operates 185 return flights per week, bringing the total flight frequency back to more than 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, the focus will be on connecting attractive cities in both countries to promote two-way tourism.
In 2024, the total number of flights is expected to average around 342 per week, equivalent to approximately 16,146 flights per year, offering more than 2.9 million seats, a recovery of around 92.2% of 2019 levels. Airlines are launching more flights and opening new routes. For example, IndiGo now operates the Hyderabad-Bangkok route with a daily flight, and Thai Airways flies the Cochin-Bangkok route every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, i.e. one flight per day.
Other examples are the Vishakhapatnam-Bangkok route operated by Thai AirAsia with three flights per week, the Amritsar-Bangkok route operated by Thai Lion Air with four flights per week, the Kolkata-Bangkok route with four flights per week, the Cochin-Bangkok route with three flights per week and the Ahmedabad-Bangkok route with four flights per week.
TAT Governor Thapanee Kiatpaiboon added that Indian tourists are considered high-spending travelers. As flights from India to Thailand are short, usually 3-4 days, Indian tourists spend about 38,000 baht per person per trip. TAT aims to increase their spending to at least 40,000 baht by 2025 and encourage them to stay longer by promoting new destinations such as Chiang Mai.
Currently, not many Indian tourists visit Chiang Mai due to a lack of entertainment options that appeal to them. To change this, the TAT plans to highlight attractions that suit their preferences, such as zoos and water parks.
With the target of over 2.5 million Indian arrivals in 2025, there are supporting factors such as the recovery in flight frequency. However, this also poses a risk. Although airlines are growing, demand on certain routes is not as high as it should be. For an airline to operate efficiently, demand needs to be constant in both directions, i.e. outbound and inbound. Currently, the demand from India to Thailand is higher than from Thailand back to India, so airlines cannot fully optimize their flights.
Another influencing factor is the exchange rate. A stronger baht influences the decisions of Indian travelers, especially families (who make up about 60-70 percent of the total Indian tourism market), as it makes the trip more expensive.
In addition, the global economy continues to weaken, including in India. The Indian government is promoting domestic tourism and wedding events within India, which has led to a slowdown in Indian weddings in Thailand.
From January 1 to December 15, 2024, Thailand welcomed over 33 million international tourists. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, a total of 33,491,851 foreign visitors have traveled to Thailand so far this year, generating around 1,573,080 million baht in tourism revenue.
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