Thailand’s tourism growth stalls: part one – visitors from most major markets are down this year

While the drop in Thailand's tourist numbers is becoming more evident as the year progresses, the Indian market offers a rare bright spot as travel between the two countries surges to new highs.

The Jul-2025 border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia is undoubtedly a major reason for the Thai tourism decline, although there are also other factors affecting inbound demand.

The net result is that Thailand's steady post-pandemic recovery in international travel and capacity is being derailed in 2025.

Thai tourism agencies now acknowledge that visitor targets for 2025 are unlikely to be achieved - such an outcome is a big deal for one of the region's most important tourism markets.

Although most of Thailand's largest inbound source markets - most notably China - have seen a year-on-year decline, Indian visitors have increased.

Thailand's situation underlines a post-pandemic trend for many countries that have meant that Indian outbound travel flows have risen faster than those from other markets. This has helped offset the slower rebound of historically strong markets, such as China and Japan.

Part one of this analysis will focus on the overall drop in Thailand's inbound tourism, and part two will look at the more positive growth story of India-Thailand flows.