How many Thai tourists visit the UK? In 2024 the UK recorded an estimated 72,000 visits from Thailand, who spent about £131.7 million — roughly £1,832 per visit. Below: the visit and spend numbers, plus the unique visa-to-visit funnel for Thai travellers, compiled from VisitBritain/ONS and UK Home Office data.
Compiled & reviewed by Sunaree Ko, Founder · Source: VisitBritain/ONS & GOV.UK Home Office statistics
The UK recorded an estimated 72,000 visits from Thailand in 2024, with total visitor spending of about £131.7 million and an average of roughly £1,832 per visit — about two-and-a-half times the UK-wide inbound average of around £763. These VisitBritain/ONS figures are indicative because Thailand is a small-sample market. Separately, in the year ending March 2026 Thai nationals made 53,346 UK Standard Visitor visa applications, of which 89.2% were granted — the visa funnel that sits behind those visits.
This is the table that joins the two halves of the story: how Thai visitor-visa applications become grants, then visits, then spend. Visa figures are Home Office (year ending March 2026); visit and spend figures are VisitBritain/ONS (calendar 2024), so the two columns cover slightly different periods and are not a direct conversion — read it as a funnel of magnitudes, not a one-to-one chain.
| Stage | Figure | Source & period |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor-visa applications | 53,346 | Home Office, YE Mar 2026 |
| Grant rate | 89.2% | Home Office, YE Mar 2026 |
| Visas granted (est.) | ~47,600 | 53,346 × 89.2% |
| Estimated visits | ~72,000 | VisitBritain/ONS, 2024* |
| Total visitor spend | ~£131.7m | VisitBritain/ONS, 2024* |
| Average spend per visit | ~£1,832 | VisitBritain/ONS, 2024* |
*Visits exceed visas granted because not every visit needs a fresh visa (visitor visas can be valid 2–10 years and cover multiple trips) and the periods differ. Visit and spend figures are VisitBritain/ONS International Passenger Survey estimates for 2024, flagged as indicative due to low sample size and "official statistics in development"; the ONS advises against year-on-year comparison. Visa figures are UK Home Office, year ending March 2026 (released 21 May 2026). Always confirm the latest figures at the sources below.
Average spend per visit, Thai visitors compared with selected reference points (2024; values are the percentage of the highest bar shown, with the pound figure labelled).
Thai average spend per visit (~£1,832) is roughly 2.4× the UK-wide inbound average (~£763, i.e. £32.5bn total inbound spend ÷ 42.6m visits in 2024). Bars are scaled to the larger figure. All figures VisitBritain/ONS 2024, indicative.
In 2024 the UK welcomed an estimated 72,000 visits from Thailand. That places Thailand among the UK's smaller inbound markets by volume — for scale, the UK received about 42.6 million inbound visits in total in 2024, led by the United States (~5.6m), France (~3.6m) and Germany (~3.3m). But Thai travellers punch above their weight on spend per head, as the cards below show.
Thailand is a "visa national" country, which means Thai passport holders must hold a visa before travelling to the UK — they cannot use the UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). For short trips that means the Standard Visitor visa. See why Thai nationals need a visa, not an ETA and our full UK visa statistics for Thai nationals.
VisitBritain and the ONS draw these figures from the International Passenger Survey, a sample survey. Because Thailand is a small inbound market, the year-by-year estimates carry a wide margin of error, and the ONS explicitly advises against direct year-on-year comparisons for 2024 — it is badged "official statistics in development". For that reason we publish the latest single-year figure as the headline and treat any trend as indicative direction only, not a precise series.
| Year | Visits from Thailand | Total spend |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | ~72,000 | ~£131.7m |
| Earlier years | not directly comparable* | not directly comparable* |
*We deliberately do not publish a back-series for Thailand. VisitBritain's market profile shows the latest year only, and the ONS warns its 2024 IPS estimates are not endorsed for comparison with previous years. For the full UK inbound time series (all markets), see the ONS "Travel trends" release linked in the methodology.
VisitBritain's market profile splits inbound visits by purpose — holiday, visiting friends and relatives (VFR), business and study — but for small markets like Thailand the sub-totals fall below the threshold at which a reliable percentage can be published from the sample. Rather than invent a split, we describe the mix qualitatively: Thai travel to the UK is dominated by holidays and visiting friends and relatives, with smaller business and study components. The study and family flows show up far more clearly in the Home Office visa data, where Thailand records very high grant rates on the student (~99%) and family/partner (~93%) routes.
A precise holiday/VFR/business/study percentage split for Thailand is not reliably published at market-profile level because of the small sample. Treat the purpose mix above as indicative.
Every Thai leisure or family visit to the UK starts with a Standard Visitor visa. In the year ending March 2026, Thai nationals submitted 53,346 visitor-visa applications — about 89.2% were granted and 10.8% refused. That is well above the UK-wide visitor-visa grant rate of roughly 79%, so Thai applicants succeed more often than the global average. A granted visitor visa is typically valid for 6 months to several years, so one visa can support multiple trips — which is part of why the estimated 72,000 annual visits sits higher than the ~47,600 visas granted in a single year.
For the full route-by-route breakdown — visitor, study, family and work — see our UK visa statistics for Thai nationals. If a visa was refused, see reapplying after a refusal.
At about £1,832 per visit, Thai travellers spend well above the UK-wide inbound average. The likely drivers are structural rather than anything published as a precise breakdown: the UK is a long-haul destination from Thailand, so trips tend to be longer and combine multiple cities; a meaningful share of visits are visiting friends and relatives, often built around family events; and the visa requirement itself filters towards travellers making a considered, higher-value trip. Because the underlying sample is small, treat the average as indicative, not exact.
Thailand is a low-volume, high-value market for UK inbound tourism: small in visitor numbers but generating well-above-average spend per trip. On the visa side, Thailand is one of the stronger South-East Asian performers, with an 89.2% visitor-visa grant rate that sits above the UK-wide visitor average. Put together, the picture is a modest but high-quality flow of travellers that the visa data lets us size more precisely than the tourism survey alone.
This page draws on two official, free data sources and clearly separates them. Visit and spend figures come from VisitBritain's Thailand inbound market profile, which is built on the ONS International Passenger Survey (calendar year 2024). Visa application and grant figures come from the UK Home Office Immigration system statistics (year ending March 2026, released 21 May 2026), filtered to nationality = Thailand. Both are published under the Open Government Licence.
Primary sources — all free and official:
Last updated: June 2026. Next update: on the next VisitBritain/ONS release and the next quarterly Home Office release (year ending June 2026, due ~August 2026). Always confirm the latest data at the sources above before relying on it.
UK Visa From Thailand (2026) "Thai Tourists to the UK: Visitor Statistics". https://ukvisafromthailand.com/en/thai-tourists-uk-statistics — data: VisitBritain/ONS International Passenger Survey (2024) and UK Home Office Immigration system statistics (year ending March 2026).
Last reviewed: June 2026. This page presents aggregate published statistics from VisitBritain/ONS and GOV.UK for information only; it is not immigration advice and not a prediction of any individual application. Tourism figures (visits, spend) are 2024 IPS estimates flagged indicative due to small sample; visa figures are grant shares for the year ending March 2026 (Home Office, released 21 May 2026). Always confirm the latest data and any pound figures at the sources above.
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Sunaree founded UK Visa From Thailand and compiles and reviews the guides and data on this site. We are a document-preparation and certified-translation service — not a law firm and not IAA-registered — and every figure is sourced from VisitBritain/ONS and GOV.UK. Read Sunaree's full bio →