January has agents jumping

After two years of declines, Thailand’s inbound tour operators report a dramatic improvement in arrivals, with last January’s data showing they handled 252,284 clients, an increase of 77% when compared with January 2009.

It is described as the first real improvement in monthly customer data in two years.

Association of Thai Travel Agents collates the data based on customers handled on organised tours, or pre-booked trips for individual tourists, that require a meet-and-greet service at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The 2008 and 2009 data outlined a steady decline that appeared to indicate that the inbound travel trade business model was failing in the face of competition from the online travel world.

Companies blamed their losses on political riots in late 2008 that closed two Bangkok airports for almost 10 days. But the declines continued indicating that visitors were seriously discouraged by Thailand’s protracted political chaos.

While Atta officially blames their woes on a global economic crisis, privately they admit they would have faired much better if Thailand had faced  the economic downturn with the benefit of a stable government.

In January 2009, Atta reported an all time low in business of 141,814 in clients handled, but this year the same month  delivered 252,284,  a massive 77% improvement. In fact the result betters 231,809 clients handled in January 2008 and 240,757 in January 2007.

According to the latest report all top 20 markets reported an increase from 2009. Traditionally a top performer, China delivered a whopping 155.62% improvement from 16,465 to 42,088. Russia was second increasing 102.03% from 17,040 to 34,426. Korea improved 136.66% from 9,295 to 21,998. Japan increased 83.92% from 11,960 to 21,997. India increased 109.21% from 7,569 to 15,835.

The highest increase was seen in Indonesia, 13th rank in the Atta data. It improved 417.75% from 890 to 4,608. This was followed by Taiwan, 6th rank, which increased 175.85% from 5,718 to 15,773 clients.

Iran ranked top of Middle East markets, and ninth on the top 20 chart, supplying an increase of 111.05% from 3,058 to 6,454.

However, on the Scandinavian market, Sweden and Finland markets showed a decline . Sweden dropped 45.07% from 1,338 to 735 and Finland dropped for 35.19% from 3,083 to 1,998.