Which Nationality of Tourists is the Best at Shopping in Thailand?

Which Nationality of Tourists is the Best at Shopping in Thailand?

              When looking for target groups for business, foreign tourists seem to be an interesting consumer segment. This is because traveling usually comes with a readiness to spend. TerraBKK observed the spending figures of foreign tourists visiting Thailand in 2018 from the statistics TOURISM RECEIPTS FROM INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ARRIVALS BY EXPENDITURE ITEM from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Let's take a look at which nationalities are particularly interesting.

Perspective on “Shopping Expenditure as a Proportion of Total Spending”

              Assuming that a foreign tourist has a total budget of 100 Baht for their trip to Thailand, the average data from Tourism Statistics 2018 shows that about 24.3% of this is spent on shopping. In simple terms, foreigners will spend about 1/4 of their total expenses on shopping.

              Additionally, TerraBKK noted 12 interesting countries where shopping accounts for 1/3 of total spending, including 8 countries from East Asia and 4 from South Asia. Meanwhile, tourists from distant regions such as Europe, the Americas, and Oceania spend only about 15-16% of their total budget on shopping in Thailand.

               TerraBKK found that foreign tourists with a shopping expenditure proportion of 1/3 of their total spending may not be the highest contributors to Thailand's shopping revenue. Let's look at the total shopping expenditure for each nationality in 2018 to see how interesting it is.

Perspective on “Total Shopping Expenditure”

              The total expenditure from foreign tourism in Thailand in 2018 was approximately 1.88 trillion Baht. Of this total, shopping expenses amounted to around 456 billion Baht (24.3%). TerraBKK is not surprised that 35% of total shopping expenditure comes from Chinese tourists, with shopping spending reaching 161 billion Baht. This makes them the only nationality in Thailand with shopping figures exceeding 100 billion Baht per year, while other nationalities remain in the tens of billions. The second and third highest are Malaysian tourists at 33.2 billion Baht and Russian tourists at 20.6 billion Baht, respectively.

              TerraBKK concludes that foreign tourists who are interesting in terms of shopping expenditure in Thailand, both in terms of “shopping expenditure as a proportion of total spending at over 30%” and having “total shopping expenditure in the Top 10 highest” are primarily Chinese tourists, along with neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

            Finally, TerraBKK summarizes the shopping expenditure data of foreign tourists in 2018 categorized by region and country as follows: