Photos: New year revelry returns to streets of Bangkok as tourism rebounds

People take part in mass water fights during the first day of Songkran, or Thai New Year, on Khao San Road in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of revellers, including hordes of foreign tourists sporting floral shirts and plastic water guns, descended on the streets 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-kilometre 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, city-wide 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 multi-coloured water gun and sipping a beer.

A boy and a tourist play with water as they celebrate during the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year in Bangkok.

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.

At least 30 million tourists are expected to visit Thailand this year and spend 1.5 trillion baht ($43.74 billion), according to projections by the Tourism Council, an industry body.

Businesses expect tourist numbers to rise as summer approaches. "Income is skyrocketing," said Khanti Wichan, manager of ReRe Restaurant, who has worked on Khaosan Road for almost a decade.

A strong recovery in the tourism sector will be a key driver for Thailand's economy - which has bounced back slower from the pandemic than other Southeast Asian nations - to grow by as much as 4% this year, the fastest rate in five years.

People take part in mass water fights during the first day of Songkran, or Thai New Year, on Khao San Road in Bangkok.

People play with water as they celebrate the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year in Bangkok.

Locals and tourists play with water as they celebrate during the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year in Bangkok.

People play with water as they celebrate during the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year in Bangkok.