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Thailand welcomes 18.5 million foreign tourists in first seven months of 2026, China remains top source market
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欧亚时报编辑部·38d ago·~ 5 min readThailand welcomed about 18.51 million foreign tourists in the first seven months of 2026, with China remaining the top source market at 3.08 million, though overall arrivals were down 3.19% year-on-year.
Thailand welcomed roughly 18.51 million foreign tourists between January 1 and August 1, 2026, generating nearly 900 billion baht in revenue — though arrivals were still down 3.19% from the same period last year.
China remained Thailand's largest source market with 3.08 million visitors, followed by Malaysia (2.37 million), India (1.38 million), Russia (1.1 million) and South Korea (679,000). In the most recent reporting week (July 26–August 1), Thailand received 567,312 foreign visitors, down 2.92% week-on-week, averaging about 81,000 arrivals per day.
Industry figures point to slowing short-haul regional travel, security concerns in the south, and reduced flight capacity from India as key drags on overall arrivals.
Notably, this decline comes even as Thailand has rolled out a series of travel-facilitation measures in recent years, including expanding visa-free access to 70 countries and introducing a five-year multiple-entry visa — policies designed to lift visitor numbers that have so far not fully offset the broader regional slowdown in travel demand.
Even so, China's steady performance continues to provide an important pillar of support for Thailand's tourism sector, underscoring how central two-way travel between the countries — including the mutual visa-exemption arrangement — has become to the industry.
Tourism industry figures expect some recovery in the traditional high season later this year, with events such as the Thailand Focus 2026 forum also expected to draw more business and MICE travelers, though whether that will be enough to close the year-on-year gap remains to be seen.
