Thailand welcomes 3,000 foreign tourists in November

A tourist has her body temperature checked at a temple in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand hosted 3,065 foreigntourists in November, official data showed on December 28, the second month ofreceiving long-stay visitors since a ban was imposed in April to keep COVID-19infections under control.

As reported by Reuters, the November figure isjust a fraction of the 3.39 million arrivals in the same period last year. InOctober, there were 1,201 foreign visitors.

Though the country is gradually opening to foreignvisitors and offering incentives to boost domestic travel, efforts to reviveits tourism-driven economy are being hampered by an outbreak found 10 days agothat has since infected more than 1,600 people across 43 provinces.

In the January-November period, the number of foreignvisitors slumped by 81 percent from a year earlier to about 6.7 million.

Last year, the country welcomed nearly 40 million touristswho spent 1.91 trillion THB (63 billion USD), or about 11.3 percent of its grossdomestic product.

The state planning agency predicts only 5 million foreignvisitors in 2021. Foreign visitors at present are required to obtain specialvisas and undergo two weeks of quarantine./.

VNA