Bangkok (VNA)🍨 - Thailand is expected to welcome 3.5 million foreign tourist arrivals in February, a 5% increase year-on-year, with all major markets surging between 2% and 20%, except the Chinese market, which is on course to plummet by 7% due to safety concerns, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

TAT governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said Germany and Japan are projected to secure the strongest growth of 20% and 18%, respectively, compared to the corresponding period last year.

ಞ It is estimated that about 124,000 German tourists will visit Thailand in February, behind Russia, the largest long-haul market, which is expected to record moderate growth of 3% to 211,000.

Thapanee revealed that despite a 7% contraction, arrivals from China will remain the largest inbound market with 630,000 arrivals this month. Other short-haul markets in the top five include Malaysia (513,000), the Republic of Korea (198,000), and India (170,000).

Thapanee said the resumption of flights was attributed to the growth of inbound markets as ticket bookings this month surged 14%, aligning with a 15% increase in seat capacity to 4.3 million seats. However, this still lagged the 5 million seats recorded in February 2019.

She said the upcoming White Lotus Season 3 TV series filmed in Thailand should help stimulate the market over the next few months.

The factor to watch for over the coming months would continue to be the Chinese market situation. Even though this market continued to grow at a rate of 30% during the Chinese New Year holiday, it fell below expectations as the TAT previously forecast growth of between 60-70%.

In terms of the domestic market, Thapanee said there should be at least 33.9 million trips in the first two months of 2025, up 2%, generating 169 billion THB (5 million USD), an 8% increase./.