PATTAYA, Thailand – For decades, Thailand’s tourism economy thrived on a simple formula: affordable prices, strong foreign spending power, and constant turnover. Visitors arrived for a few weeks, spent freely on hotels, food, tours, bars, shops, and transport, then went home — replaced almost immediately by the next wave. Money flowed, jobs were created, and local businesses survived.
That formula is breaking down.
Across Pattaya and other tourist centers, the streets may still look busy. Beaches appear crowded in photos shared by tourism promoters. Arrival numbers remain high. Yet bar owners, restaurateurs, shopkeepers, and service workers tell a very different story: fewer customers, lower spending, and thinner margins than ever before.
The reason is not complicated.
The Thai baht is strong — and staying strong.
Once, foreign visitors enjoyed exchange rates that made Thailand feel generous. British pounds, euros, and dollars went far. Visitors spent without hesitation. Long-term residents upgraded cars, ate out daily, rented better homes, and supported local economies almost by accident.
Today, that spending power has eroded. A UK pension that once converted at over 70 baht now struggles to reach the low 40s. Even short-term tourists are more cautious. Meals are skipped. Drinks are counted. Shopping is postponed or avoided altogether. Every decision is weighed.
A strong baht does not just reduce spending — it changes behavior.
Tourism has increasingly shifted toward longer stays with lower daily expenditure. Visitors who stay for months, eat cheaply or self-cater, sit on the beach, and minimize discretionary spending may boost arrival statistics, but they do little to support small local businesses. Shops stay quiet. Restaurants empty out. Bars operate with more staff than customers.
Meanwhile, convenience chains thrive. Local “mom-and-pop” stores struggle as visitors gravitate toward predictable prices and air-conditioned certainty. The economic ripple that once defined tourism — staff earning wages, then spending locally themselves — weakens.
Tourism succeeds not on bodies, but on circulation of money.
Thailand’s own banks acknowledge currency pressures. Kasikornbank (KBANK) recently projected the baht to trade between 31.00 and 31.60 per US dollar (January 5-9), a level that continues to squeeze foreign spending power. For visitors from weaker-currency countries, Thailand is no longer a bargain destination — it is a calculated expense.
Some longtime visitors are voting with their feet. Trips are less frequent. Retirement plans are reconsidered. Others quietly reduce spending to the bare minimum, not out of disrespect, but necessity.
The irony is painful. In protecting financial stability and projecting economic strength, Thailand risks weakening the very engine that sustained millions of livelihoods. The goose that laid the golden eggs was never cheap tourism — it was spending tourism. And that goose is being starved.
Tourism policy cannot survive on arrival numbers alone. Without spending power, smiling beaches mean little to empty shops. If Thailand wants a healthy tourism economy, it must balance currency strength with competitiveness — before the damage becomes structural, not cyclical.
