Miss Nonglak Yooyendee, director of the Shanghai office, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), revealed that Chinese tourists are now ready to travel to Thailand.
In particular, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Shandong, Anhui and other provinces account for about 30% of Chinese tourists to Thailand. Because these areas are basically high-income areas in China, many Chinese travel agencies have already started planning charter flights to Thailand during the Chinese New Year.
The most important factor is what Thailand can do to prevent more negative images or news, as Chinese tourists put safety first.
Ms. Nonglak said that from the data, it was found that Chinese tourists are very fond of traveling to Thailand during the Spring Festival. At present, there are agents in many regions that have started selling Lunar New Year travel packages, such as Krabi and Phuket, if the response is good. Further sales are expected to expand in April 2024, which also includes the Thai Scran Festival.
What Thailand needs to do is to present as much positive image as possible of Thailand, because the negative news is still an important factor that causes Chinese tourists to have not decided to travel to Thailand. Thailand's main competitors are Southeast Asian countries such as Japanese and South Korea, especially Japan, because of its high security profile and products and services that meet the needs of high-end Chinese tourists.
"As you can see from the data graph, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand has skyrocketed since China opened up. But when there is negative news, the number of tourists immediately decreases, for example, in April. It takes dozens of days to apply for a tourist visa. Call center gang news, as well as shootings at a downtown mall, continue to decrease in numbers. This reflects the importance of negative news having a great impact on China's tourism market. From now on, creating content to convey a positive point of view is the most important thing," said Ms. Nonglak.
Ms Nonglak said the demand for travel in the region continues at the moment. The number of seats in the airline is not an issue. But the behavior of tourists has changed. Most of them are self-guided tour groups (FITs) because of the tourists from these cities they are considered wealthy tourists. Travel agencies can sell tour packages at a premium price. Because they have the purchasing power and are willing to pay.
Reflecting that 4-5 star hotels will have higher bookings than other tiers of hotels. Alternatively, small group tours are more popular if traveling with a guide. I don't want to travel with people I don't know. If you want to travel anywhere, you will go and talk to the travel agent to prepare a travel package for you. The main destinations to meet your needs as much as possible are Bangkok and Phuket.
Ms. Nonglak said that in 2019, before COVID-19, more than 11 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand, and about 4 million tourists from Shanghai and its jurisdiction. We're seeing a lot of the middle class affected. These groups are tour groups. Now it has disappeared, including all kinds of negative news, and the group of people who travel when the economy is not going well in Thailand are all people above the top. It doesn't matter if the price is of quality, such as a flight that is full before going to business class. It reflects the demand for higher quality services from Chinese tourists.
Ms. Nongrak said Thailand would remain China's top tourist destination if the economy was good. Demand will return to previous levels. In 2023, only 90 million Chinese will travel abroad, which is a recovery from the situation before COVID-19 in 2019 and only 58% of the estimated 155 million people returning home in 2019, but it is still expected to return to normal in 2024. Therefore, it is estimated that the potential of Thailand's tourism industry has not decreased in the slightest.
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