Thailand tourism expected to flourish in 2024 and new development directions

Thailand tourism expected to flourish in 2024

Chinese tourists are returning to Thailand after a long absence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thailand is also now one of the favorite overseas tourist destinations for Chinese people.

Chinese tourists take a group photo at a museum in Samut Prakan, Thailand on March 1. Photo: Xinhua

On a weekend at Chiang Mai’s 16th-century Tha Phae Gate, scores of Chinese tourists dressed in elegant evening gowns scattered corn kernels to attract pigeons. Their fluttering wings made for the perfect social media photo.

"Ninety percent of our customers are Chinese. This year is the best year ever since the pandemic because Chinese tourists come and spend more," said Picharnyut Rodjananon, 44, one of the photographers who captured the scene.

The Thai government is hoping to welcome about 8 million visitors from China in 2024 through stimulus policies such as visa exemptions and cheaper airfares that are expected to boost the recovery of the market - which has been an important source of Thailand's tourism industry.

During the Lunar New Year holiday, Thailand’s tourism industry reported that about 30,000 Chinese tourists visited the kingdom each day. But those numbers are still down from pre-Covid-19 levels, even as outbound tourism from mainland China began to rise after 2023.

By the end of this year, Thai authorities also hope to see a record 40 million foreign visitors – with the number of Indian, South Korean and European tourists also rising – surpassing pre-Covid-19 numbers to cement Thailand’s status as the unbeaten champion of Southeast Asian tourism.

According to online travel platform LY.com, in addition to a large number of Chinese tourists taking advantage of the new visa-free travel policy to visit Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore during the eight-day Lunar New Year holiday, the number of bookings on the site also increased ninefold compared to last year.

Spending in the three Southeast Asian countries using Alibaba's Chinese payment platform Alipay also increased nearly sevenfold between February 9 and 12 compared to the same period last year and was 7.5% higher than the 2019 level, Reuters reported.

The number of mainland Chinese customers visiting the airport last year was six times higher than a year earlier, according to Todd Handcock, global chief commercial officer and president of Asia- Pacific at Collinson, which operates the Priority Pass lounge access program.

“This upward trajectory has continued into the recent Lunar New Year holiday, with Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia benefiting,” added Odd Handcock.

Todd Handcock expects “this momentum to accelerate in the coming months, driven in part by visa-free travel programs across several Asia-Pacific markets and the release of pent-up demand for international travel from Chinese consumers.

Competition in the Southeast Asian tourism market is currently quite fierce as travel companies in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore launch major advertising campaigns.

Expand more airports

The Tourism Authority of Thailand is targeting 39 million visitors in 2019. The industry is expecting more tour groups to return later this year as airlines capture more demand and expand routes to China.

The number of Chinese tourists to Thailand this year mainly includes independent travelers, young couples, influencers and families who tend to eat street food.

Last year, just 3.5 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand, while even fewer Chinese tourists visited Malaysia: just under 1.5 million, less than half the 3.1 million who came in 2019 and far from the government's target of 5 million by 2023.

In total, Malaysia welcomed about 20.1 million foreign tourists last year, generating 71.3 billion ringgit ($15.1 billion) in tourism revenue, according to data from Tourism Malaysia. That is double the number of arrivals in 2022, when tourism revenue was recorded at 28.2 billion ringgit, but still far from the record 26.1 million tourists who spent 86.1 billion ringgit in 2019.

“What we learned in 2023 is that the recovery of Chinese outbound tourism is much slower than expected for destinations in Southeast Asia. We expect to see new Chinese tourists by the end of 2024. The value-conscious travelers are still there, as are group travelers, but there is also a younger market of young couples, business travelers. The demand for travel is very diverse,” said Gary Bowerman, director of Kuala Lumpur-based travel analytics firm Check-in Asia.

That diversity plays out nightly in Chiang Mai, where hotpot restaurants fill with older tourists while younger crowds are drawn to the chic Thai restaurants, cocktail bars and live music events that have transformed the city's reputation from backpacker paradise to stylish weekend getaway.

“Night tourism is something that needs to be thought about seriously,” Mr Bowerman said of the factors that attract young Chinese tourists to the city.

Supamit Kitjapipat, owner of Siripanna Villa Resort & Spa and head of the city’s tourism business association, also stressed that Thailand’s tourism industry has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. The problem is the number of incoming flights, airport capacity, and fewer large tour groups.

To address some of these issues, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin recently launched a plan to invest in airport capacity and revitalize the country's economy./.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/cach-thai-lan-dinh-huong-phat-trien-du-lich-nam-2024-20240312102830991.htm