Thailand is on top of the tourism shopping list for Asian travellers, when the borders open

By The Thaiger

 

 

“Fear & Possibilities in a Post Coronavirus World”. That’s the name of a new study jointly prepared by Blackbox Research, Dynata, and Language Connect. For ‘fear’ and ‘possibilities’, there are plenty of both as Thailand and Asia emerge from 6 months of battling and containing Covid-19, with more knowledge and better handling of outbreaks.

 

The global study indicates that residents of Asian countries want to travel to Thailand when travel eventually opens back up. The study examined the sentiments, preferences, and expectations of just over 10,000 people across 17 countries.

 

Tourists from Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and India are preferred Thailand as their first destination when their own’ borders reopen and they can travel again.

 

At this stage Thailand is unlikely to reopen to commercial flights and leisure travel for the rest of 2020 with comments from both the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the country’s Civil Aviation Authority in the past week confirming the situation.

 

82% of Thais are confident “Thailand is well-prepared to reopen its tourism and leisure activities”, when it does.

 

But 90% of Thais don’t want tourists to return until a vaccine or cure for Covid-19 becomes available. That is indicative of the risk-averse Thai government and the other surveys around the country that show Thais want to avoid a 2nd wave of the disease at all costs.

 

Thailand, based on figures from the travel industry, will likely finish 2020 with around 50% of its inbound tour operators either bankrupt or unable to continue trading. Hotels and online bookings services will not be much better off as they shore up cash flow with loans and the country’s GDP retracts by 8.1%

 

Thailand’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, with foreign tourist dollars contributing around 11% to the national economy. When you add all the peripheral businesses that hinge on the flow of tourism, then the contribution to the Thai GDP from direct and indirect tourism, is close to 20%.

 

• 93% of Thais recognise the importance of the tourism sector for the local economy.

 

• 22% of Thais agree that there is an urgent need for tourism boards, including their own, to promote tourism for economic reasons.

 

• 91% of Thais are keen to support local travel attractions in the next 12 months

 

Saurabh Sardana, Blackbox Research’s chief operating officer, says that amongst south east Asian countries, Thailand has the strongest domestic appeal. The Thai government’s recent investment of 22.4 billion baht (around US$720 million) as a stimulus to domestic tourism, provides e-cash for local tourists at selected hotels and restaurants throughout the country.

 

“Our study has found that price is not necessarily the highest priority for their next trip – this applies to all the key areas such as transport, accommodation and attractions. Instead, visitor safety measures overwhelmingly ranked top of the list for most Thai travellers… transport 43%, accommodation 46% and attractions 53%.”

 

Across the survey international leisure travel, at least in the short term, is not a high priority for most people with 44% of respondents still keen to avoid international holidays. Of those the Japanese (32%), Filipinos (42%), New Zealanders (43%) and Australians (52%) were the least interested to take long-haul trips at this time.

 

Australia and Japan surveyed as the two most popular destinations for Asian travellers, and Spain is on the top of the list of European travellers.

 

The countries whose tourism appeal has taken the biggest hit during the pandemic, according to the survey, are China, Italy, and the US.

 

• 80% are willing to pay more for safer accommodation.

 

• 74% are open to paying a higher premium for travel insurance in exchange for protection against viral outbreaks.

 

• 76% of respondents indicated that their preferred travel destinations would be countries that offer more “contactless experiences”.

 

• 66% prefer to travel in their own vehicles for road trips between cities or countries, compared to travelling on a plane.

 

SOURCE: TTR Weekly

 

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Source: https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/thailand-is-on-top-of-the-tourism-shopping-list-for-asian-travellers-when-the-borders-open

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2020-08-15

 

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Well that's my daily portion of tripe digested.

With a Pinocchio nose so big He can't fit in the room is what I am thinking!  "10,000 people over 17 countries" is hardly global and hardly a true sample when there are 6.8 billion people on the planet.  Ps: The source offers not one link to verifiable info or questionnaire details. 

Edited August 15, 20205 yr by Grumpy John
Ps:

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

Tourists from Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and India are preferred Thailand as their first destination when their own’ borders reopen and they can travel again

From Hong Kong,Singapore they ask mama noodel seller's in street corner 900 people. And in Philippines,Indonesia and India they ask rice farmer workers 9000 people. Rest they ask Europe 20 people,Usa 30 people, Oz 30 people and finaly (not last )Nz 20 people! 80 % off them want travel to Thailand if 9900 people find money to do so and its healthy! But this 9900 have to apply passport first!

Ah don't need ask Europe and other place! Don't need them Thailand is rescued! 

Edited August 15, 20205 yr by 2 is 1

and they all want to be 14 days in quarantine ????  100.000 US$ insurance and other ...

 

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

Thailand, based on figures from the travel industry, will likely finish 2020 with around 50% of its inbound tour operators either bankrupt or unable to continue trading. 

Problem is that bankruptcy is not limited to just tour operators. If they don;t open by CHinese new year, Thailand will take a decade to build its tourism back, simply as the foreign tourism infrastructure has gone bust and the people have sold up and left the area. Whilst having to stay in UK currently, my wife is telling me that where we live in Pattaya at least 10% of all the Thai neighbours in a 400 ish building estate have upped and left for home regions 

It is a very selective quote from the survey;

 

"82% of Thais are confident “Thailand is well-prepared to reopen its tourism and leisure activities” when it does.

 

But 90% of Thais don’t want tourists to return until a vaccine or cure for Covid-19 becomes available.

 

That is indicative of the risk-averse Thai government and the other surveys around the country that show Thais want to avoid a 2nd wave of the disease at all costs."

 

* In other words until a vaccine is available forget about foreigners coming to Thailand. 

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The global study indicates that residents of Asian countries want to travel to Thailand when travel eventually opens back up. The study examined the sentiments, preferences, and expectations of just over 10,000 people across 17 countries.

Who says this , more porkies .

 

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

But 90% of Thais don’t want tourists to return until a vaccine or cure for Covid-19 becomes available. That is indicative of the risk-averse Thai government and the other surveys around the country that show Thais want to avoid a 2nd wave of the disease at all costs.

Another post today states 82% of Thais are confident in allowing tourism to continue... 

Not of this means they will travel anytime soon......it is just a wish...not a cast iron intention.

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

But 90% of Thais don’t want tourists to return until a vaccine or cure for Covid-19 becomes available. That is indicative of the risk-averse Thai government and the other surveys around the country that show Thais want to avoid a 2nd wave of the disease at all costs.

Another post today states 82% of Thais are confident in allowing tourism to continue... 

Perhaps it depends if there's an 'R' in the month, or odd or even days.

 

Wait Asian Countries reopen their borders all of which presently closed including Thailand which is about to declare it is in a severe recession. No one knows if Thailand will actually have a tourist or aviation industry after covid. So far no vaccine has been found and may never will be

44% of respondents still keen to avoid international holidays. Of those the Japanese (32%), Filipinos (42%), New Zealanders (43%) and Australians (52%) were the least interested to take long-haul trips at this time.

 

So out of 10,000 respondants, 4,440 don't want to to travel internationally.

On that basis lets assume that when Thailands economy does open that visitors are going to be down by around 50%

possibly more if the Chinese have found another zero-dollar destination.

 

Whilst Japan ranks #6 in the list of nationalities visiting Thailand, Australia ranks 16th, Filipinos are 19th and New Zealanders way down in 24th position. I'm not sure the data is of any real use to be honest.

 

On 8/15/2020 at 4:45 PM, hotchilli said:

Another post today states 82% of Thais are confident in allowing tourism to continue... 

Said it before:-