Thanks a million – Vietnam sets new annual tourist landmark

By The Nation

 

TAT’s Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, right, and Duong Thu Trang, the one millionth Vietnamese tourist.

 

A Vietnamese woman, Duong Thu Trang, has become the one millionth tourist arrival from that country to Thailand in 2018, a historic first between the two Southeast Asian neighbours.
 

Duong landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 12.25pm on Thursday on a Thai Airways International flight from Hanoi.

 

She received special prizes, including a Thailand tour package for two, return airfare for two, and a gift voucher for Bt10,000.

 

Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) deputy governor for International Marketing (Asia and the South Pacific), who welcomed the lucky arrival, said more than 90 per cent of first-time Vietnamese travellers chose Thailand as their destination.

 

Vietnam is one of Thailand’s most vibrant short-haul markets. With a population of more than 96 million, the country is enjoying an economic boom fuelled by foreign investment from Japan, South Korea, China and Russia in several large industrial sectors. 

 

This is combined with the introduction of new low-cost carriers offering increased flight frequencies between Vietnam and Thailand.

 

In 2017, Thailand welcomed 970,000 visitors from Vietnam generating over Bt30 billion in tourism-related revenue.

 

TAT plans to be more proactive in promoting Thailand around Vietnam next year ¬ it has scheduled marketing initiatives in both key and secondary cities, including the capital Hanoi plus emerging destinations like Haiphong, Quảng Ninh and surrounding provinces.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/business/30360381

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-12-14

Still dragging that worn out old ''Amazing Thailand'' slogan around ....Xin Chao..

13 minutes ago, mok199 said:

Still dragging that worn out old ''Amazing Thailand'' slogan around ....Xin Chao..

Agree mok. Don't get me wrong, I live los and love it, but. Right now sitting airport waiting flight to my usual getaway, Saigon.

If Vietnam ever extends its visa exemptions to more countries and length of stay....Thailand should start to worry. 

Edited December 14, 20187 yr by DrJack54
Error

3 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Agree mok. Don't get me wrong, I live los and love it, but. Right now sitting airport waiting flight to my usual getaway, Saigon.

If Vietnam ever extends its visa exemptions to more countries and length of stay....Thailand should start to worry. 

Agreed ..I lived in dist 1 for a year then vung tau for another year...Amazing Vietnam.....have a safe trip sir

Lucky the one millionth tourist happened to be a young photogenic lady.

The one defining talent of T.A.T. so far has been a flamboyant inability to count, so, I suspect this lucky win had more to do with when deputy governor Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya was due to get his hair cut.

50 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

If Vietnam ever extends its visa exemptions to more countries and length of stay....Thailand should start to worry.

1

Yup, 100% correct.

Thailand's ridiculous visa policies - literally forcing its existing customers to fly out of country - has given a huge boost to emerging destinations in the region, destinations that will become serious competitors as the situation for foreigners in Thailand continues to deteriorate.

Given the choice, almost all of us would prefer to just pay 5K to get our next visa here in Thailand, rather than waste time, money, effort, stress and jet fuel on the sham of visa runs. One benefit of this forced travel, however, is that we are exposed to alternatives to Thailand.

I had no particular desire to visit Vietnam but, now that Thailand has forced me to go there six times, I know that I could be very comfortable there. The same goes for certain parts of Malaysia and Cambodia.

The Philippines is in many ways better than Thailand, food being the only real problem, and the Filipinos are certainly happy to make free money on extensions rather than insist that their customers keep flying in and out.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that a new government - one deriving its legitimacy from votes rather than populist anti-farang sentiment - will seek to reverse some of the damage done since 2014 by returning to the previous visa rules, making a six-month tourist visa easy to acquire once again.