The table and graph illustrate the figure for incoming tourists visiting four different countries, namely Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, and the revenue generated from tourism from 2000 to 2014.
Overall, there was a dramatic shift in terms of the turnover from 2000 to 2014. In addition, Thailand emerged as the most dominate category across all of the surveyed categories, while Japan was accounted for the smallest proportion at the beginning and the end of the recorded period.
In terms of travellers coming from overseas, in 2000, Thailand took the lead with 9.5 million, followed by Singapore at 5.3 million. The figure for South Korea was nearly two times as high as that of for Thailand (5.3 million). At the other end of the scale, Japan made up a mere 4.8 million. In 2014, Thailand was still recorded the highest figures at 24.8 million. In contrast, Japan only attracted 13.4 million, slightly more than half of the number of Thailand’s tourists.
As for the tourism revenue, Thailand’s figures rose sharply from about 8 billion to around 26 billion, whereas South Korea’s increased gradually to 12 billion. Singapore’s situation was similar to Thailand, starting off at around 7.8 billion and ending at about 24 billion. Comparatively, South Korea experienced a slight decline, dropping to just 5 billion in 2005 before climbing back to approximately 13 billion.