By
Bloomberg
Published
February 24, 2025
Thailand's ambitious goal of attracting up to 9 million tourists from China this year seems in doubt, after the kidnapping of a Chinese actor began to take continental visitors to the security of Japan and Singapore.
Flight cancellations to the country that are marked as the “land of smiles” increased 94% last month, according to Bloomberg Intelligence Research, since the most Chinese chose to take their families to the ski fields and the hot springs of Japan during the New Year lunar. The trips to Thailand in the first two weeks of February were still behind last year's levels, he showed the note.
The news of the kidnapping of Chinese actor Wang Xing to Myanmar through Thailand and his subsequent rescue caused a wave of New Year's Travel cancellations by continental travelers. Since then, Thailand to fill in tourism has taken energetic measures against scammers and criminal rings that use the country as a transit center for traffic involuntary victims to work in cyber-scam centers. But so far little has been done to relieve travelers' fears
“Security concerns have enough weight with Chinese tourists to make them think twice before traveling to Thailand,” said Bloomberg's intelligence analyst Eric Zhu. “The absorption of bad news has been much higher than the steps that have been taken to increase security, which will make its reputation repair a probable uphill battle.”
Meanwhile, China's flight reserves to Japan have more than duplicated in the first quarter of the previous year, thanks also to the weakest and the air rates as low as $ 150 from Shanghai to Tokyo. That helped Japan overcome Thailand as the best destination abroad for Chinese tourists during the eight -day holidays this year. Tickets without visas to Singapore and Malaysia have also attracted Chinese tourists away from Thailand.
Only Japan attracted a record of 980,000 Chinese tourists last month, more than double last year, according to the National Tourism Organization of Japan. Meanwhile, Thailand said that almost 711,000 Chinese had visited this year until February 2.
Bangkok has closed the power of the operators of illicit companies in Myanmar, while working with his neighbor to suppress the scam centers, from where more than 1,000 foreign workers were recently released, including several hundred Chinese.
It remains to be seen if repressions will help recover more Chinese tourists, the main source of foreign receipts in Thailand's tourism industry. It is forecast that tourism, which represents approximately 12% of the country's gross domestic product and a fifth of the total employment, will bring an estimated $ 55 billion this year.
It is unlikely that Thailand can reach the upper range of its objective for Chinese visitors, and will have difficulty overcoming the 8.8 million proposed at the lower extreme if it does not quickly address the security concerns of Chinese tourists. Quarter, Zhu wrote in the note. If the problem persists until 2025, Thailand can have difficulty attracting more than 7.5 million Chinese arrivals, he said.
There are some signs that concerns are decreasing, but it is still too early to call a change in feeling. Although China's reserves to Thailand for March have still decreased approximately 10% week after week, the demand for flights for April and May shows a growth of more than 3%, according to the Chinese marketing firm Trading Desk, which tracks the continental travel market.
“The fear for traveling to Thailand has decreased,” said the executive director of China's commercial desk, Bhatt Subramania. “Even so, Thailand is very compared to 2019, while both Malaysia and Singapore have a very strong recovery of Chinese visitors.”
Beyond closing scam operations, Thailand's government and industry need to do more to develop tourism beyond popular destinations such as the capital of Bangkok, the beaches of Phuket and the jungles of Chiang Mai, said the president of The Thai Hotel Association, Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun.
“Even Thai people love to go to Japan instead of going to Phuket nationwide,” he said. “We have lost good quality travelers who favor currency exchange. We need to do more, offer more destinations to attract visitors. ”
