The Economic Impacts of Chinese and European Tourists Spending in Thailand

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the different economic impacts of the spending value of Chinese tourists (emerging markets) and European tourists (mature markets) by applying the input-output analysis to assess these impacts. The expense data in accordance with the expense structure of Chinese and European tourists in 2016, as reported by the Department of Tourism, including the data from the tourism input-output table at producer prices for the year 2010, prepared by the Department of Tourism, is used in this analysis.

Results of the study indicated that the differences and changes in the spending structure of Chinese and European tourists have a different effect on the various economic sectors in the Thai economy. Some sectors need to expand the production to meet the increasing needs of Chinese tourists compared to European tourists. While some have to reduce the production due to the decrease in final demand resulting from the lower demand of Chinese tourists compared to European tourists. The non-touristic economic sectors that need to increase the production are runber, chemical, petroleum industries and plastic, banking and insurance and other services. The sectors that have to reduce the production a lot are the non-metallic, metal products and machinery, food manufacturing and agriculture. For the touristic economic sectors which requires a lot more production are retail trade of country specific tourism characteristic goods and other country specific tourism characteristic activities. While accommodation for visitors, road passenger transport, and food and beverage serving activities are the service sectors that have to decrease the production according to the less demand of Chinese tourists compared to European tourists.