Tourism in Thailand is clearly rebounding, as evidenced by the significant increase in new business registrations in the sector

Thailand’s tourism sector is experiencing a significant recovery, with a sharp increase in new business registrations in the first four months of this year.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, the number of new tourism-related business registrations doubled from the previous year to 2,579, with a total increase in registered capital of 135% to 6.66 billion baht. Major businesses in this sector include currency exchange offices, travel agencies, tour guides, restaurants, food businesses, hotels, resorts and serviced flats.

In total, there were 32,223 new business registrations across all sectors in the first four months, an increase of 16.2%, with registered capital of 360 billion baht, up 46.8%. The Business Development Department forecasts between 42,000 and 45,000 new business registrations in the first half of 2023, and between 75,000 and 78,000 for the whole year.

In April alone, 6,041 businesses applied for company registration, an increase of 12% on the previous year. However, the registered capital of these new companies amounted to 20.9 billion baht, down 88% from the previous year.

The most represented sectors among new business registrations were real estate, general building construction and hotels and restaurants.

The majority of new registrations are in the range of less than 1 million baht, accounting for 65.7% of total registrations. Then, 32.9% of the registrations are between 1 and 5 million baht, and 1.11% between 5 and 100 million baht. Businesses with registered capital of more than 100 million baht accounted for only 0.30 percent of the total.

In April, 936 companies ceased operations, with registered capital of 5.17 billion baht, a 10% increase from the previous year. The most affected sectors were general building construction, real estate and hotels and restaurants.

As of April 30, Thailand had 871,041 active companies with a total capital value of 21.2 trillion baht. These companies are divided into limited partnerships (23.3%), joint stock companies (76.6%) and public companies (0.16%).