What I love about Thailand - One of the World's Top Tourist Destinations

We were in Chiang Mia for a little more than a week and we fell in love with this city! Thailand is one of the most popular and successful tourist destinations on the plantet. Pre COVID period, it attracted almost 40 million tourists in 2019. Though the number of tourists declined sharply during COVID with only 6.7 million in 2020 and only 427,000 in 2021 due to strict entry policies. However, the tourists are returning fast.

In 2023, there was a strong rebound to 28 milliong arrivlas and in 2024, Thailand welcome over 35 million arrivals, almost reach the 2019 numbers. For years leading up to the pandemic, Thailnad ranked 8th or 9th in the world for international tourist arrivals. It competes closely with countries like the UK, Turkey, Germany and Mexico. Many tourists love coming to Thailand for a variety of reasons; I love Thailand for the following reasons: 1. Plants and greenery everywhere!

 

I loved the way Thai people decorated their gardens and the front of their houses with various size of plants in nice flower pots hanging from trees or displayed on shelves.

2. Nice, polite and gentle people providing good services wherever we went. ( I can’t say that about every country where we have visited. In certain European countries, we found people were cold, unfriendly and unwelcoming, Therefore we have no desire for a returned visit to these countries. ) But with Thailand, it is a complete different situation. Thailand is known as the 'Land of Smiles", its hospitality is a key reason why we will certainly return for more future visits.

  3. Safe and clean cities and litterless streets – When in Thailand, we felt completely safe! There were a couple of nights when we went out walking on the streets and we were not afraid or nervous at all. We didn't see any drunks, crazy or angry people screaming at others for no reason like we often see so often in North American cities.

 

Thai people are clean people. This was evident on Thai city streets and in their pubic spaces. Thais obviously love keeping their cities clean and are making conscious efforts to do so. Thailand may not be as wealthy as other countries. But from what we saw, Thais' mom and pop small stores were kept spotless and free of clutters. It was a pleasure for us walking by their stores and finding their creative ways of making their storefronts attractive and inviting.

  4. Affordable living accommodations, groceries and dining out at restaurants - Coming from a western country, we have the advantage of our currency being much stronger comparing to the Thai Baht, therefore giving us more buying power in Thailand.

  5. Delicious food

Thai cooking is famous in the world. While we were in Thailand, we didn’t venture into any western food franchised restaurants such as KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Pizza or Burger Kings.

There were so much good and inexpensive Thai food around, we didn’t need to go into any fast food at all. I think we have had enough Pad Thai that would last us for a long time!

  RT, Chiang Mia, Thailand