Thailand makes a splash as water festival returns, tourism rebounds, income ‘skyrocketing’
- Festivities for Songkran, described as the world’s largest water fight, had been muted or barred for a few years mainly due to Covid-19
- Thailand had more than 6 million tourists in the first quarter – at least 30 million are expected to visit this year and spend about US$44 billion
Tens of thousands of revellers, including hordes of foreign tourists sporting floral shirts and plastic water guns, descended on the streets of Bangkok on Thursday for the biggest traditional new year gathering since the pandemic.
Festivities for Songkran, a much-loved Thai festival sometimes described as the world’s largest water fight, had been muted or barred for the past few years due mainly to Covid-19 restrictions.
But as travellers now return to Thailand, the key tourism sector is helping revive Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.
Revellers – many of them soaked to the skin – walked through a half- (0.3 miles) long stretch in Bangkok’s tourist hub of Khaosan Road, indiscriminately firing water guns and dancing to music blaring from kerbside establishments.
“It’s a multiple-day, citywide water fight”, said Jared Baumeister, a lawyer from New York, who flew into Bangkok this week to join the festivities. “I don’t know where else in the world you’d get this”, he said while holding a multicoloured water gun and sipping a beer.
Thailand beat its target of 6 million tourist arrivals in the first quarter, recording 6.15 million visitors between January and late March, according to government data.