Thailand is on course to welcome its millionth tourist of the year later this month following the easing of travel rules.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), there has been a sharp increase in the number of arrivals into the country in May compared to March and April, following the cancellation of the Test & Go program.
Between January 1 and May 11, a total of 966,686 people entered Thailand, with TAT forecasting that a total of one million tourists will have entered the country by the end of May.
By comparison, Thailand only welcomed a total of 428,000 foreign arrivals for the whole of 2021.
The number of arrivals is expected to increase further if the government moves ahead with plans to cancel Thailand Pass from June 1.
"I am confident that if the government cancels the Thailand Pass on June 1, 2022, the number of international tourists coming to Thailand will increase further," said Ms. Thapanee
"At the moment, the TAT is looking forward to when the average number of tourists per day reaches 50,000, or 1.5 million per month. And if it continues in this path, Thailand is expected to have roughly 7-10 million foreign tourists", Ms. Thapanee added.
Since May 1, between 30,000 to 40,000 tourists have arrived in Thailand on average.
Before the start of the pandemic, approximately 110,000 thousand tourists would arrive in the country each day.