Foreign tourists in Thailand surge 6% in November, as Hong Kong protests drag on

• Financial

Thailand, the Southeast Asian country known for tropical beaches with a $505 billion highly tourist-oriented economy, the eighth-largest in Asia, seemed to be bestowed on a rare bonanza over its tourism industry that accounts for nearly 17.7 per cent of the Southeast nation’s entire GDP (Gross Domestic Product), as number of tourists visited Thailand last month rose by just a notch shy of 6 per cent on a year-on-year basis, the Thai Ministry of Tourism had revealed in a statement on Wednesday, the 25th of December 2019.

Aside from that, Wednesday’s (December 25th) Thai Ministry of Tourism’s statement had also reported than roughly 3.36 million tourists had visited the nation last month and had spent a lump sum of $5.54 billion, 2.98 per cent up from the same time a year earlier.

In point of fact, latest boost in Thai tourism industry was almost entirely galvanized by a steep upsurge of tourists from China, who had preferred Thailand this year instead of Hong Kong amid a six-month long pro-democracy protests which turned violent over the recent months, as number of tourists from China climbed 18.33 per cent last month on an annualized basis following a 27.81 per cent jump in October.