By Naewna and Thai Newsroom Reporters
ALTHOUGH a Cambodian newspaper said over the weekend (Oct. 25-26) that Khmer tourists are now shunning Thailand and instead going to Malaysia and Singapore for their holidays figures from the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports show they were not among the top 10 foreign tourist arrivals last year.
The Khmer-language Cambodia Morning Post mentioned this change in a Facebook post headlined “Goodbye Thailand! New tourist destinations for Cambodians are Malaysia and Singapore.”
Tourism and Sports Ministry figures show that the top 10 nationalities visiting Thailand in 2024 were:1/ China; 2/ Malaysia; 3/ India; 4/ South Korea; 5/ Russia; 6/ Laos; 7/ Taiwan; 8/ Japan; 9/the United States; and 10/ Singapore.
The total number of Khmer tourists visiting Thailand during the first nine months of this year reached 239,946 compared to 414,920 during the same period last year, a drop of 42.17%. There was a sharp plunge after the five-day border clashes last July with monthly totals being as follows:
– January – 46,001;
– February – 43,533;
– March – 41,087;
– April 30,607;
– May – 36,430;
– June – 19,994;
– July – 12,813;
– August – 4,479;
– September – 5,002.
The total number of foreign tourists holidaying in Thailand during this year’s first three quarters reached 24,115,328 compared to 26,088,856 during the same period last year, a drop of 7.56 percent.
CAPTIONS:
Top – Foreign tourists arriving in Thailand. Photo – Thai Rath
Insert – A big group of Cambodians. Photo – Naewna
Front Page – A young woman catching a flight to a tourist destination. Image by Jan Vasek from Pixabay
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