ANN/THE NATION – The Tourism Ministry in Thailand is collaborating with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in exploring strategies for increasing charter flight traffic from China, South Korea, Russia and Europe.
The aim is to boost tourism numbers to reach Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s target of 40 million visitors. Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol emphasised the need for strong strategies to meet the ambitious goals set by the prime minister, aiming for 40 million international visitors and THB3.5 trillion in tourism revenue in 2024.
Discussions include marketing tactics, particularly focusing on charter flights, to maximise the chances of reaching these targets.
The ministry convened a meeting with TAT yesterday, to monitor the plan to stimulate the market and attract charter flights from both nearby and distant markets.
These include Russia, the Scandinavian region, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), certain areas of Europe, South Korea, and China, which present the greatest opportunity for recovery.
Despite China’s economic slowdown, the market’s size and readiness for travel make it conducive to expanding charter flights to secondary cities in China.
This will help increase the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand to reach the target of eight million people this year.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 2019 was considered a record-breaking year for Chinese tourists travelling to Thailand, with over 11 million visitors. The market structure showed that 40 per cent were independent travellers, while 60 per cent were group tourists.
Among these groups of tourists, around 25 to 30 per cent travelled on charter flights.
Stimulating charter flights is considered a crucial tactic because it can attract international tourists from secondary cities that do not have regular flights, allowing them to visit Thailand.
In 2019, the proportion of international tourists travelling on charter flights was around 17 to 20 per cent of the nearly 40 million foreign visitors.
However, in 2022, this proportion decreased significantly to only three per cent.
“Therefore, it is imperative to expedite efforts to regain a 15 per cent share of the charter flight market in the current year,” Sudawan said.
Additionally, the ministry and TAT will assign tasks to the TAT offices responsible for the top 10 international tourist markets with the highest number of travellers to Thailand. Each market is required to achieve a growth of at least 10 per cent or more in the current year.
For example, the Russian market must achieve a growth rate of 10 to 15 per cent.
All these tactics and strategies require budget allocation and supporting policies, such as the visa facilitation policy and extending visa-free measures.
