Tourism industry staging huge familiarisation trip to revive flagging market
Thailand’s tourism industry is preparing to welcome 500 Chinese travel agents and media members at the end of this month, hoping to revive a market that has plunged 32% compared with a year ago.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans to monitor the impact of the giant familiarisation trip for one month to see if the market shows signs of avoiding the worst-case prediction of just 5 million Chinese arrivals this year — down 25% from 6.7 million in 2024.
The the sluggish Chinese market has caused short-haul tourist arrivals to Thailand to decline 9% year-on-year, said Pattaraanong Na Chiangmai, TAT deputy governor for international marketing in Asia and South Pacific.
She attributed the decline to concerns over tourism safety in Thailand, global economic uncertainty and increasing competition from other Asian destinations.
Vietnam welcomed a record 6 million foreign tourists in the first quarter of 2025, a 29.6% increase from a year ago, with Chinese arrivals up by 78%, the Vietnam Economic Times reported recently.
In an effort to lift the Chinese market, the TAT is hosting “Sawasdee Nihao”, inviting more than 300 Chinese travel agents and 200 media representatives to survey tourism attractions from May 29-31.
Ms Pattaraanong said the private sector, including the Association of Thai Travel Agents, hotels and airlines are joining the marketing event.
She said some Chinese travel agents had booked an additional 100 seats using their own funds in order to allow their employees to join the event.
The business activities will start with with a trade meeting, where 500 Thai tourism sellers will be able to discuss business deals directly with Chinese agents, followed by the opening ceremony chaired by the prime minister, the tourism minister and China’s ambassador to Thailand.
Travel agents will also be invited to explore attractions in Rayong, Pattaya and Bangkok, while the media will be divided into groups to follow five routes in Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Rayong, Nakhon Pathom and Pattaya.
Ms Pattaraanong said the event should boost the awareness of Thai tourism, reaching an audience of 350 million people, while 5,000 business deals should be finalised from the trade forum.
Subsidies, chartered flights
The campaign could complement other tourism stimulus campaigns that the government is preparing, such as subsidies for online travel agents, and plans to incentivise chartered flights from Chinese second-tier cities.
Last month, a wholesale tour company from China with over 500 agents in its network surveyed attractions in Thailand, demonstrating demand for the sale of tour packages.
Its five offices in China are also holding separate promotions to target different tourism groups in each city.
Ms Pattaraanong said these campaigns should help drive the growth of the Chinese market growth to between 6.9 million and 8 million arrivals, significantly higher than the estimated 5 million in the worst-case scenario.
According to the TAT, Chinese spending averaged 5,300 baht per day, with a length of stay of 5-6 days per trip.
The short-haul market should account for 70% of total foreign tourists this year, generating around 61% of overall revenue.
Ms Pattaraanong said the agency categorises short-haul markets into four groups, reflecting their situation. The group containing markets that are contracting the most comprises China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and South Korea.
The markets that remain unchanged comprise Malaysia and Taiwan, whose situations are fluctuating. However, there are still opportunities for demand to be boosted in these markets, such as through additional flights and the promotion of tourism by train and car via the border in the case of Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Japan is seen as a market with positive growth, which the TAT wants to target by trying to attract more young Japanese people to Thailand.
The final group comprises the Philippines, India and Australia, which have already recorded growth of 32%, 16% and 16%, respectively.
