BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai hotels giant Minor International ended 2023 on a strong note and was seeing bookings in Thailand in the first two months of 2024 up 20% to 30% from last year, its chairman said on Tuesday.
Tourism spending in 2024 in Thailand, an Asian travel hotspot, was expected to be higher than in previous years and room rates and airfares would remain high as travel recovers, chairman William Heinecke told reporters.
Bangkok-based Minor’s hotel division has a portfolio of more than 530 hotels globally, with Thailand contributing to about 11% of its revenue.
Tourism is a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.
This year the government is forecasting 33.5 million foreign arrivals.
It has a rolled out a slew of measures to draw in more visitors, including waiving visas for Chinese tourists, cutting taxes on alcohol and extending the opening hours of nightclubs and bars.
Thailand had 28 million foreign visitors last year, who spent 1.2 trillion baht ($33.71 billion), government data showed. That compares with a record of 39.9 million arrivals generating 1.91 trillion baht in pre-pandemic 2019.
($1 = 35.6000 baht)
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Martin Petty)
