bangkok, thailand – Bangkok’s Chinatown is lit up with red lanterns and flags to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Last weekend, Chinese Thai people gathered at temples to light candles and pray for good luck as the region celebrated the Year of the Dragon.
Inside the glowing red interior of Wat Mangkong Kamalawat, Bangkok’s largest Chinese temple, women wore traditional Chinese dresses and posed for photos with their loved ones.
Outside, lion dancers perform amidst the hustle and bustle of Yaowarat Road as tourists (Thais and many tourists) gather in the streets to sample food and shop at market stalls. I was there.
Many of them were from China, with official figures showing that hundreds of thousands of Chinese people chose to spend their holidays, which began on February 10, in Thailand, where visas are no longer required. There is.
“Southeast Asian destinations traditionally rely on a strong Lunar New Year holiday to kick-start their tourism calendars,” Kuala Lumpur tourism analyst Gary Bowerman told Al Jazeera. .
“Thailand has successfully captured outbound travel demand from China through bilateral visa exemptions and aggressive marketing to the Chinese market led by the prime minister. It encouraged airlines to increase their capacity. [the] Chinese New Year. ”
Thai Prime Minister Suretta Thabisin announced in September a temporary visa waiver for Chinese tourists, kickstarting efforts to attract more Chinese arrivals. This short-term agreement quickly became permanent after Thailand and China signed an indefinite reciprocal visa waiver for mutual visits for their nationals from March 1.
Nithy Siprae, deputy governor for marketing at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said the number of Chinese visitors was encouraging.
“It’s very exciting, [a] “The new visa exemption between China and Thailand is a positive sign as it will bring more confidence to Chinese tourists,” he told Al Jazeera. “Currently, we have 27,000 to 28,000 tourists.” [arriving each day] Since February 1st, we have almost returned to pre-coronavirus normality. At the same time last year, there were 7-8,000 people.500,000 last month [China visitors arrived]”
Thai government spokesperson Chai Wacharoenke said on Saturday that 4 million tourists arrived in Thailand from January 1 to February 8, including more than 730,000 Chinese tourists. He said there was.
Based on Nishi’s rough numbers, the number of Chinese arrivals could reach 1 million by the end of this month.
“We do promotions with online travel agencies; [we] We work with regular travel agencies to organize roadshows in big cities in China.Also, flights are back to 90 percent [capacity] Because visas were waived, like before the pandemic.we [are trying] “We will work with Chinese influencers and key opinion leaders to create content experiences in Thailand,” he added.
Further initiatives are planned
Phuket in southern Thailand has been inundated with arrivals in recent weeks.
The island hotspot is expected to welcome 49,000 tourists per day through its international airport during the Lunar New Year period, which ends on February 16, according to local media.
The festival falls in the middle of Thailand’s high season, which typically lasts from November to March, and is a major holiday for mainland China.
Ranjeet Viswanathan, director of sales and marketing at the luxury Hyatt Regency Phuket Resort, said occupancy was even higher than most expected.
“This year has started on a high note. All of our hotels have exceeded expectations in January, and this trend continues in February. Our hotels have had an occupancy rate of over 92 percent since January 1st. ,” he told Al Jazeera.
Chinese tourists account for about 12% of the resort’s business, with visitor numbers so far in 2024 up 5% from a year ago.
According to the Chinese calendar, 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon, which can be a time of new ideas, projects, and prosperity.
Chinese travelers have long been an important part of Thailand’s travel industry, but despite the surge in arrivals, their numbers are still significantly lower than in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic. ing.
In the same year, Chinese tourists accounted for more than 11 million of the record 39 million tourists who visited Thailand.
More than 3.5 million Chinese people entered the country last year, but this was still less than the 5 million expected by Thai authorities.
Experts attribute the lower-than-expected numbers to China’s own economic problems and domestic travel trends. The mass shooting that killed one Chinese man at a shopping mall in Bangkok in September and the release of the blockbuster Chinese movie “No More Bets,” which depicts fraud in Southeast Asia, may also have played a role.
But tourism analyst Bowerman said the recent surge in Chinese tourists to Thailand shows that Chinese outbound travel is recovering.
“The strong demand for travel from China to Thailand in the first two months of 2024 suggests that outbound travel from China will be very different this year compared to 2023,” he said. Ta.
Thai tourism authorities expect the number of arrivals from China to exceed 8 million by the end of 2024.
Tourism authority Nissi is already working to attract more tourists from China, negotiating new air routes from China to Thai cities such as Udon Thani in the northeast and Hat Yai in the south. He is optimistic that Thailand is on track to meet its arrival target by the end of the year.
“It’s really promising. We need to keep an eye on this situation, give more confidence to tourists and do further promotion,” he added.