During the first four months of this year, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam attracted similar numbers of Chinese visitors, while tensions between Japan and China simmered, reports the Bangkok Post.
Even though Japan lost a significant number of Chinese tourists to other Asian rivals, posting a decline of more than 55% year-on-year, it still welcomed 1.4 million arrivals from the mainland, while arrivals surged from competitors such as South Korea, rising 22% to 3.93mn.
Meanwhile, more than 550,000 Thai travellers visited Japan during the first four months, marking a 7.2% increase year-on-year, while another 137,125 travelled to South Korea, up 25%.
Pattaraanong Na Chiangmai, deputy governor for international marketing in Asia and the South Pacific at TAT, said the figures demonstrated the importance of short-haul markets for each country, including Thailand.
The tourism industry should not view other countries as solely competitors, seeking opportunities to grow tourism flows and helping each other balance inbound and outbound travel, she said.
This could help secure healthy air traffic over the long term, particularly while the aviation sector remains on edge during the war in the Middle East.
"In the past few months, many airlines have cancelled flights and reduced capacity to adjust to softer demand during the low season. This prompted us to rethink our strategy, as taking a broader regional view may help to sustain our growth," said Ms Pattaraanong.
The agency is formulating its 2027 marketing master plan, projected to launch in October.
For short-haul markets, which typically make up 60% of total visitors, TAT’s NEXT strategy aims to address pain points and target a wider range of markets to diversify risk.
She said Thai tourism struggles because of a lack of new attractions to draw repeat visitors, particularly from short-haul markets, as frequent visitors are familiar with existing tourism offerings.
Under the new direction, the country aims to attract major events to encourage new bookings, such as Tomorrowland 2026 this December, giving tourists more reasons to revisit Thailand.
"Purpose-driven trips is a new trend. For example, people visit Singapore for concerts or travel to Boston to take part in its prestigious marathon. Likewise, many tourists have already booked hotels to attend Tomorrowland in Pattaya this year," said Ms Pattaraanong.
In terms of the experience economy, she said the strategy aims to leverage existing cultural products to generate greater value by adding creativity, such as community-based tourism and new lifestyle malls gaining popularity among foreigners for their locally made products, such as the Good Goods store.
TAT plans to expand its exchange system by engaging more partners beyond the hospitality sector to gain better insights from tourist data and make services more efficient, such as through mobile network companies and digital payment gateways, in order to enhance ease of travel, she added.
Ms Pattaraanong said the agency wants to continue to raise trust in Thai tourism by encouraging its overseas offices to increase risk awareness and strengthen risk management, as negative news about Thailand can spread rapidly across nearby countries faster than expected.