Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing this Tourism Sector here in Thailand. I got to thinking of making this video after reading a recent article from Royal Coast Review, royalcoastreview.com, the article is titled: Thailand's PM says Tourist Numbers to triple in 2023. Quoting directly: "A faster-than-expected rebound in international visitors is putting Thailand's economy on course to return to pre-pandemic growth by next year, according to the Prime Minister.” Quoting further: “The economy will expand by 4.2% in 2023 on top of forecast growth of 3.3% this year, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told a press briefing after the weekly Cabinet meeting. That would match the pace in both 2017 and 2018, which represent the highest over the past decade according to data compiled by Bloomberg." 

Yeah, well fair enough but when you take a massive notch down you know I hesitate to say there's nowhere to go but up but yeah there was a lot of room to go up. So while it's great news, I want to be clear it's great news, I think the 3.3% increase in whatever it was 2017 or 18, again it is not an apples to apples comparison to a 3.3% increase in 2022 compared to 2021 for example. Quoting further: "The tourism reliant nation has eased Covid-related travel curves," yeah that has been a very good thing, quoting further "waived visa requirements and relaxed business restrictions to lure international travellers as soaring inflation has derailed the recovery and domestic consumption and Investments." Quoting further: "About 6 million foreign visitors are expected this year, the vast majority in the latter 6 months. General Prayut said that the numbers should more than triple the 19 million next year." and I certainly hope he's right, I definitely hope he's right. I definitely would love to see 6 million people having come to Thailand by the end of 2022. I think I can speak for many people here in Thailand when I say that having a strong high season this year would very much help things greatly, the overall economy, the tourism based economy just everything. It would be a very, very good thing.

I know there are some, I'm not really trying to be cynical, but there were times when I kind of point out my own personal criticisms on things but I have to give credit where credit is due. The Government especially in the last couple of months have really moved forward in getting Thailand reopened, getting tourism back on track so I am hoping these trends continue and I am really, really hoping we see a strong high season here in the Kingdom of Thailand in 2022.