The Tourism Authority of Thailand, supported by Thai Airways, hosted eight agents on a fam trip to Thailand. Jennifer Morris reports on how tourism is bouncing back after a tough few years
UK bucks market to post rise in bookings to Thailand last month
It’s been a turbulent few years for tourism in Thailand, but the UK market has remained resilient, and visitor numbers even spiked last month.
However, the same can’t be
said for other Asian markets, with short-haul visitor numbers to Thailand taking a blow in recent times. Political turmoil rocked the country in May last year after an army coup, and on August 17 this year a bomb tore through the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, killing 20 people and injuring 120, including tourists. That tragedy prompted Britons
to name Thailand – which attracts 900,000 UK visitors a year – as one of the five holiday destinations that they were “most afraid of visiting” at present, according to a survey by Travelzoo at the end of September. However, visitor numbers paint
a different picture. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said the number of UK arrivals in September rose 5.2% on the same month last year to 58,800. Although the Erawan Shrine
reopened within two days of the explosion, the incident had a sharp
“There have been only a handful of cancellations from the UK. It’s resilient”
impact on tourism to Thailand. While visitor numbers from
the UK remained steady, bookings from short-haul markets such as China were cancelled in their
thousands. Year-on-year arrivals from Hong Kong, for example, fell 23.9% in September. Chris Lee, the Tourism Authority
of Thailand’s UK and Ireland head of marketing, said: “One hotel group saw half a million room nights cancelled.” While hotels in Bangkok fared
the worst, properties as far as Chiang Mai in the north were hit, with one boutique hotel reporting a
TAT unveils tender process for funding
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched an “accessible” tender process for assigning funding to the UK travel trade. The TAT UK Joint Marketing Tender 2015-16 was sent to all
operators featuring Thailand in August, asking them to put forward proposals for joint marketing campaigns and a share of £423,000. “Historically, we have had tour operators approach us on an ad hoc basis and ask if we would support them on a joint marketing campaign,” said Chris Lee, UK and Ireland head of marketing. “This has led to it being a bit sporadic and lacking direction from our end.” TAT is splitting its investment into two parts. It will commit
£248,000 to six key consumer projects on radio, in the press and online, which operators will be invited to support. The second part of the programme will involve tour operators putting forward proposals to be granted a share of £175,000 from TAT. Five operators will receive £25,000 and five will receive £10,000.
15% fall in bookings in September. “There were only a handful of cancellations from the UK market, however,” said Lee. “It’s resilient.” “Some of my biggest operators,
ones that take 50-60,000 people to Thailand a year, had just one cancellation after the bomb. “The real impact was on the
inter-Asia market, but that’s started to come back quite quickly.” Nicolaus Priesnitz, cluster
general manager for the Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort and the soon-to-be-completed Avani Riverside Bangkok Hotel, said the brand suffered an immediate drop in demand after the bomb, before which Thailand had been “on a roll”. “In terms of bookings, we
are very confident for the early months of 2016,” he said. “We have lost a little bit for the
first quarter, but we are bridging the gap with early-bird promotions and last-minute booking windows. “It is really important for the British trade to understand that it is safe to visit this wonderful country. All the hotels communicate with each other over security and frequently exchange best practice on this.”
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travelweekly.co.uk 29 October 2015
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