Spending during the upcoming vegetarian festival is projected to reach a six-year high of 46.91 billion baht, up 2.2% from 45.9 billion baht last year, driven largely by higher food prices and a shift towards plant-based trends, according to the latest survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).
Underlying consumer sentiment remains cautious, however, with participation in the annual festival expected to drop to an 11-year low.
Thanavath Phonvichai, president of the UTCC and advisory chairman of its Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting (CEBF), said overall activity during the festival, running from October 9th to 18th, will remain lively.
“While total participation may flatten or slightly contract, higher living costs have pushed average spending per person to a record 5,576 baht, which is a 7% year-on-year increase,” Dr. Thanavath added.
“Consumer behaviour is visibly shifting,” he said, explaining that, instead of observing a strict vegetarian diet for every meal throughout the entire 10 days, more people are opting to skip meat for only select meals.
Nevertheless, merit-making motivations and health trends, particularly an interest in plant-based proteins, continue to support overall festival turnover.
He added that government stimulus measures, like the ‘Thai Chuay Thai Plus’ scheme are helping to cushion economic pressure, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Around 62% of businesses surveyed believe that the program will boost vegetarian food sales, while 26.6% of consumers say it encourages them to spend more during the period.
Umakamol Sunthonsurat, director of the CEBF, disclosed details from the survey of 1,230 respondents nationwide conducted between September 21st and 28th.
Only 32% of respondents plan to observe the festival this year, down from 34% in 2025 and marking the lowest level in 11 years, while 68% indicate that they will not participate.
Among those choosing not to participate, sluggish economic conditions were cited as the primary reason by 25.8% of the respondents.
Other factors included lack of Chinese heritage (14.2%), no household members participating (12.3%) and expensive vegetarian food prices (11.3%), reflecting how income constraints and living costs continue to weigh on consumer decisions.
For those planning to observe the festival, the primary motivation remains the intention to make merit (19.7%).
This was followed by observing the diet solely as a seasonal tradition (18.3%), wanting to reduce meat consumption (15.4%), taking advantage of free meals provided at shrines (10.4%) and general health reasons (10.2%).
In terms of spending behaviour compared to last year, 49.8% of respondents plan to keep their outlay roughly the same, 33% expect to spend more and 17.2% plan to reduce their expenditure.
Among those anticipating higher costs, 38.1% attributed the rise directly to higher food prices, while 22.6% reported eating larger quantities than normal.
Among respondents cutting back on spending, however, 46% cited the need to economise and 19.8% blamed poor economic conditions.
Overall, consumer sentiment remains subdued, with nearly 49% evaluating this year's economy as worse than last year, 36.6% seeing no change and only 5.8% expecting an improvement.
Businesses held a slightly more stable outlook, with 48.9% stating economic conditions remain unchanged and around one-third viewing the environment negatively.
