She added that these visitors have generated revenue of around 290.92 billion baht for Thai entrepreneurs.
In the first eight weeks of this year, China was the top source market for foreign tourists to Thailand with 1,114,316 arrivals, followed by Malaysia (759,828), Russia (397,006), South Korea (387,475), and India (293,129).
In the past week (February 19-25), foreign arrivals totalled 763,855, down 8.19% from the previous week or by 68,134 people, bringing the average foreign arrivals per day to 109,123 people.
Sudawan noted that European travellers tend to make fewer trips at the end of the winter holidays, which contributed to the decrease.
The ministry expects foreign arrivals to rise again this week (February 26-March 3), thanks to the permanent visa waiver deal for Thai and Chinese citizens, and the increasing number of flights to Thailand to be offered by several airlines.
Thailand and China have agreed to waive visa requirements for their citizens permanently from March 1, which comes just after the earlier visa-free policy expires.
The government’s visa-free policy has been implemented since September last year beginning with a 5-month visa exemption for visitors from China and Kazakhstan, followed by India and Taiwan in November.
The ministry has set a revenue target for 2024 of 3.5 trillion baht, 2.3 trillion baht of which would come from some 40 million foreign arrivals. Domestic tourists, meanwhile, will contribute 1.2 trillion baht from around 200-220 million person-trips.
