Thai tourism boosts GDP

BANGKOK Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports claims tourism revenue contributed a 17.7% slice of the country’s gross domestic product last year.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Pongpanu Svetarundra, said overall tourism circulated THB2,510,779 million in revenue last year increasing 11.09% from 2015.

Of that, THB1,641,268 million came from international markets (+12.64%) and THB869,510 million from domestic markets  (+8.27%).

With an overall of THB2.51 trillion in tourism revenue, last year, the sector helped to boost the country economy accounting for 17.7% of GDP, he said.

Tourism revenue figures are based on estimates sourced from exit surveys at airports with other financial data such as credit card sales taken into account. However, they remain rough estimates that could vary considerably from actual spending generated by tourism.

The top five sectors that gained the most benefit were: Accommodation (THB580 billion); food and beverage (THB448 billion); land transport (THB136 billion); air transport (THB122 billion); and sports and entertainment (THB100 billion).

The tourism sector created 4,230,000 jobs, contributed THB64.2 billion in tax revenue and attracted THB93.6 billion in investment, he said.

According to the ministry’s revenue data released last Thursday, East Asia including ASEAN generated THB871,428.07 million in tourism revenue last year increasing 12.79% from THB772,591.63 million in 2015.

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