Last year, it collected US$57 billion in international tourism receipts, nearly doubling Macao (US$36 billion), Japan (US$34 billion), Hong Kong (US$33 billion), and China (US$33 billion). Globally, the only countries that out-earn Thailand in terms of tourism dollars are France (US$61 billion), Spain (US$68 billion), and the United States—which handily takes the gold medal, at US$211 billion.
(Oct 11): Just more than a year ago, I ate at Nahm, in Bangkok—and walked out after paying barely US$60 ($83) for a tasting menu that currently ranks 49th on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. My grand, five-star hotel, the Anantara Siam, with its gilded murals and landscaped courtyards, cost US$150 a night, including a breakfast buffet that was truly fit for royalty. Even the most expensive souvenir I bought in town, an elephant figurine with inlaid mother of pearl, cost less than a typical outing to McDonald’s back home in New York.
Yet, according to a visualisation of recent UN World Tourism Organization data by HowMuch, a financial literacy and infographics agency, Thailand outranks every other nation in Asia when it comes to tourism spend.
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