Chiang Mai Foreign Tourist Arrivals Recovering Slowly Post-COVID: 2023 Numbers at 58% Compared to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Chiang Mai—

On January 3rd, 2024, Mr. Worapong Muchaotai, an official from the Chiang Mai Office of Social Enterprise Promotion (Visit Chiang Mai), publicly revealed 2023 statistics of foreign tourists traveling to Chiang Mai airport with a total of 3.9 million individuals.

However, when comparing the 2023 statistics to before COVID-19, the result showed that the number plummeted from 5.6 million in 2019. The number of international passengers was 1,186,726 which was 58% of the number in 2019.

According to statistics by Visit Chiang Mai, the number was estimated to increase in 2024 and would return to a normal state in 2025. The number of Chinese tourists was insignificant with a total of 200,982 which was only 23% compared to before COVID-19.

One of the reasons was that the Chinese economy and market were not improving even in 2024. For this reason, the number of Thai tourists visiting China would be higher than that of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand despite the permanently waiving of visas between the two countries, remarked Worapong.

Meanwhile, the number of Korean tourists showed a great improvement, especially in sports tourism, such as golf tourists. Another interesting figure was the Taiwan market such as a new airline from Taipei-Chiang Mai, Starlux Airlines, which would potentially increase the number of Taiwanese tourists in 2024, concluded Worapong.