Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tourism as a key component of the Thai economy. Yeah, that is pretty self-evident. Now as we have discussed in other videos, I think foreigners especially, especially ones who live here, think tourism oftentimes makes up for more of Thailand's GDP than it actually does. As we have discussed in prior videos, and cited from very credible sources, tourism makes up about 18% of Thailand's GDP; probably somewhere around 18 to 20%. That is a significant portion of GDP and believe me I did the videos on it; I lived here during the lockdowns and everything. That segment of the economy is missed when it is gone. When it was decimated, literally decimated - that's the correct word - it was 1/10th, it was like 1.8% of GDP I believe at the beginning of 2021 or '22 because we had come off all this time of just being completely locked down. Yeah it was felt within the economy. 

That said, it looks like we are seeing major changes in terms of a paradigm shift on the part of the Government with regard to tourism. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that is thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: 90-day Visa for European travellers to boost confidence and goodwill damaged by pandemic. Quoting directly: “Mr. Prommin Lertsuridej is one of Prime Minister Srettha's most senior advisors and at the outset of the new Government, in September, the growth of foreign tourism was marked as a key economic objective." As usual, quoting a small excerpt in there. We urge those who are watching this video, go read that article in detail. As per usual, Thai Examiner gets very meticulous, gets into the high weeds; a lot of good data points in that article. 

But long story short it is the fact that one of the Prime Minister's senior economic advisors has said that a key economic objective is tourism itself and that is a great attitude to have because quite honestly, having watched the tourism sector suffer so much lo these past 3 years, it would be very, very good to start seeing that sector turn around. And I am hoping going into this high season, these changes with regard to Visa Exemptions, or I should say making Visa Exemptions more broadly available to more nationalities is a very good idea and hopefully we will see sort of the proof being in the pudding this high season with regard to higher numbers of arrivals coming in to the Kingdom of Thailand.