In November, it recorded 1.75 million visitors, quadruple the number received for the entire previous year when flights and foreign arrivals were limited.
Anutin said Thailand was now expecting 7-10 million Chinese visitors, compared to an earlier estimate of 5 million.
“This is a good sign for Thailand’s tourism sector…the country’s economy will recover rapidly. For the past three years we have been devastated by COVID,” he said.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects arrival numbers for last year to top 11.5 million, more than a quarter of the record of around 40 million in pre-pandemic 2019, which spent about 1.91 trillion baht ($55.17 billion). did.
Anutin said Thailand would still require foreigners whose next destination is a negative pre-entry COVID-19 test to show they have health insurance to cover for treatment for the disease.