International tourism plays a major role in Thailand's foreign exchange revenue by connecting the country to regional and global networks. While on one hand tourism has had a significantly positive impact on the country's BOP, inefficiently planned tourism on the other hand has lead to several social and ethical issues. On the brighter side, Thailand has been captured in the eyes of tourists for a long period of time but only recently has the country emerged as a crucial player in expanding the tourism industry of Southeast Asia. After the Vietnam war, tourism in Thailand grew rapidly. Today, out of all the other third world countries, Thailand is known to be one of the most developed in terms of tourism. When looking at statistics of the late 20th century, tourists in Thailand accounted to a staggering seven million and at that time, the country was the second most popular in terms of tourist arrivals. With these statistics, airlines began offering cheap flights to Bangkok from London and other destinations.

The tourism industry in Thailand also exhibits how the global travel trend is moving towards areas that have a diverse range of attractions and activities. Furthermore, the country focuses much of its attention on the four Ss of tourism - sea, sand, sun and sex. The recent explosion in the arrivals of tourists in Thailand has resulted in a massification of the tourism industry. Communication networks and tourist transportation was expanded, improvements were made to accommodation facilities, and more and more people began investing in tourism-oriented services. The airline industry competed to offer travelers the cheapest flights to Bangkok from destinations all over the world. In addition, there was an increase in the frequency of flights from London to Bangkok and from other destinations.

Moving on, tourism spread all over the country; originating from Bangkok and spreading to Chiang Mai in the north and Phuket in the south. From these regional areas, tourism spread further and popularized the €Golden Triangle' in the north while the south gave tourism opportunities to cities like Phangnga, Songhkla, and Krabi. In addition to that, Thailand tourism has experienced heterogenic changes in many areas. These include the variety of tourists, nationalities of tourists, the range of tourist attractions, quality and variety of facilities and services available for tourists, and so on. One last change that tourism has brought to Thailand is that of being regionalized as a tourist destination. In previous years, Thailand was an isolated country which foreigners hardly ever thought about visiting. With the efforts taken by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to build and expand connections to foreign networks and hence the tourism industry, the country has come to where it is today.