Chinese tourism arrivals, expenditure doubles; Russian market halves

The total expenditure by visitors of all nationalities was up 29.69pc over January-June 2014, and matched the 29.54pc growth in visitor arrivals in from January through June 2015, reports the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) News Room.

Overall, Chinese visitors are by far the biggest source of both visitors and expenditure, totalling 4 million arrivals in first six months of this year, up 111pc over 1.89mn in the same period last year, with an expenditure of B190.9 billion, up 138.9pc over B79.9bn in January-June 2014.

“The sharp rise in visitor expenditure is playing a major role in bolstering the Thai economy, supporting jobs and income distribution nationwide. It also fits in with the new strategic focus of the Tourism Authority of Thailand to make visitor expenditure the dominant criteria of measuring the success of the tourism industry, as against visitor arrivals,” said the TAT report.

“Although the January-June 2015 figures are preliminary, they provide a good indication of the resurgence in tourism following the overall decline in visitor arrivals and expenditure in 2014. The Royal Thai Government now recognises tourism as a major driving force in the national economy.”

Other nationalities in the Top 10 list of visitor expenditure in January-June 2015 were:

In terms of arrivals, the Top 10 nationalities in January-June 2015 were:

The TAT forecasts 28.8mn international visitors generating an estimated B1.4 trillion this year, with the recently launched TAT marketing plan for 2016 focusing on promoting the kingdom as a “Quality Leisure Destination through Thainess.”

“The plan marks the start of a new era for Thai tourism. The wording of the new strategy indicates an end to decades of focussing on ‘quantity’, as measured by visitor arrivals, and a total shift to ‘quality’ as measured by visitor expenditure, average length of stay, and the overall quality of the visitor experience,” reports the TAT.

Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul reported that the Thailand tourism development plan will help to improve the country’s competitiveness and improve connections to neighbouring countries.

She said the Cabinet approved the draft of the Thailand Tourism Development Strategy Plan (2015 to 2017) last week. The plan to develop five priority tourism clusters was go to the National Tourism Policy Committee this week. The five tourism clusters are: Lanna Culture; South I-San Civilisation; Active Beach; Royal Coast; and Andaman.

The strategy covers both short and long-term goals and shifts the emphasis away from mass tourism to quality tourism measured by revenue earned and length of stay. According to the plan, next year’s tourism revenue should reach B2.3trn and B2.5 trn in 2017.

Under the three-year plan, the country will focus on generating tourism revenue, particularly for local communities to attract quality tourists. The plan comprises of three strategies: tourism product and service development, tourism management and marketing.

The minister added: “Asean Connect is also one of the strategies to be adopted”.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Areepong Bhoocha-Oom, said tourism ministers of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam discussed an action plan (2016 to 2018) to develop the region’s tourism industry at the 2nd ACMECS Tourism Ministerial Meetings in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, late last month, reported TTR Weekly.

“We agreed to move on seven strategies to develop the region tourism sustainability.” said Mr Areepong.

The seven strategies are:

• Promote tourism under the tagline five countries one destination–Thailand and Vietnam are responsible on the plan;
• Develop product links in the region – Cambodia;
• Exchange tourism information – Myanmar;
• Develop tourism products – Myanmar;
• Develop human resources – Thailand and Vietnam;
• Improve tourism safety – Vietnam;
• Study private sector involvement in tourism – Laos and Vietnam.

“Travel facilitation was also considered especially visa and transport, capacity-building programmes for tourism professionals and tourism stakeholders and promotion of the green and responsible tourism in the ACMECS region,” said the TTR Weekly report.

“Tourism related action plans as part of the ACMECS Cooperation pact, include development of new tourism corridors, development of border tourism, enhancement of sub-regional connectivity, promotion of foreign direct investment, tourist safety and environmental protection of tourist sites.”

Read TTR Weekly original report here.