There were no foreign tourist arrivals in June for a third straight month, as borders remained closed in the midst of the pandemic, resulting in a 66 percent year-on-year drop to 6.69 million visitors in the January-June period, data from the Tourism Ministry showed on Wednesday.
Foreign tourist spending was 332 billion baht in January-June, down 65 per cent from a year earlier.
The tourism-reliant country, which last year had a record 39.8 million tourist arrivals, imposed a ban on incoming passenger flights in April when it recorded zero foreign visitors for the first time.
There were 3.05 million foreign tourists who spent around 131 billion baht in June 2019 alone.
The state of emergency will be extended to control the coronavirus outbreak until the end of August, though no local virus transmission has been recorded for more than two months.
The central bank has forecast that the number of foreign tourists this year will drop to 8 million 80 per cent. Foreign visitor spending accounted for 11.4 per cent of gross domestic product last year.
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