Trips out of China decline
August 19, 2009 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
Travel from China continues to drop and travel agents worry about financial resources to promote new markets.
Local travel agents blame the drop inbound trips from China on the economy, swine flu and a lack of financial resources to market travel agency products in China. Bookings are down 20 to 30% so far this year.
Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association president, Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, says a lack of financial support hinders the ability of Thai inbound travel firms to make a real impact in China.
He quotes five factors that caused a decline in the Chinese market:
Type A H1N1 virus;
Chinese government promotes travel to Taiwan;
Thailand’s political uncertainty;
Economic downturn in China;
Lack of financial resources to go to the market.
Thai travel agents claim they lack resources to promote new markets in China, where there are many untapped niche areas such as honeymoon, student and educational trips.
Meanwhile, Tourism Authority of Thailand, together with the Minister of Tourism and Sports, hosted a road show, earlier this month, to Beijing and Shanghai where TAT opened a new branch office. It plans to open another office in Kunming this October.
At the moment most tourism marketing executives over concentrate on China to lure tourists to Thailand. OK, I believe we all agree in the importance of that market, but please do not ignore other important markets. Over the next few months as the main tourism iseason approaches we need to also concentration on marketing in Europe to create more demand from European tourists. We must look into the situation in European countries that show signs of recovering and make a stronger effort to lure them back to Thailand. We have to wisely use our marketing budget and conduct smart marketing to promote Thailand and conserve our tourism resouces by using green development. Yes, we are sure that Thailand will return to normal and its tourism will grow agan. Hopefully withiout severe confrontation among our people.