Thai Songkran Holiday Spending Set for Biggest Drop Since 2022
Elephants spray water on party goers during Songkran in Phra Nakhon si Ayutthaya, Thailand, last year.
Photographer: Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images
Thailand’s Songkran festival — the country’s biggest annual celebration of water fights, homecomings and holiday spending — will be more subdued this year as rising costs weigh on consumers.
Spending during the April holiday is projected at 129.6 billion baht ($3.95 billion), down 3.7% from a year earlier and marking the steepest drop since 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war rattled the global economy, a survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce showed.