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Thailand tourism
2007 - chic optimism
 By
Andrew J Wood
Last Year’s 60th Anniversary celebrations were a series of
outstanding events that generated excellent exposure for Thailand and its
tourism industry. Despite the New Year bombings 2007 is expected to show
continuing signs of growth but at a slower pace. Industry experts agree that
2007 should be a good year and the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT)
predictions of a growth from 13.8m international visitors to 14.8 million in
2007 are achievable but ‘optimistic’. According to Mrs. Phornsiri Manoharn,
the recently appointed Governor of the Tourism Authority, tourism is
expected to generate Bt 547 billion of revenue in 2007.
Commenting on the outlook for 2007 Mr. John Watson, CEO of Diethelm Travel
Asia (DTA) a leading inbound operator in Thailand was asked for his view on
the outlook for 2007.
“Whilst 2006 was a year of strong recovery for Thailand, I am not so sure
for 2007 at this time. I think it inevitable that the current political
uncertainty will affect the corporate in-bound market negatively. The
decision makers in the corporate market are closer to the issues than the
individual leisure traveller from abroad. We have seen a number of corporate
(MICE) customers asking us questions that demonstrate they are uncertain
about the wisdom of coming to Thailand until the political situation is
resolved.”
Mr. Luzi Matzig, MD of Asian Trails was a little more optimistic, saying,
“For Asian Trials 2006 was an excellent year with sales growing by 53% over
2005. Naturally we do not expect such steep growth to continue unabated into
2007, but general outlook on bookings is very positive and I am convinced
that we can expect another increase of around 25% for the coming year.”
He added, “Thailand is very popular at the moment, not only with Europeans,
but also with visitors from the Middle East who are no longer keen to travel
to the USA / UK in great numbers and feel happier in our part of the world.”
The Thai Hotel Association (THA) president however paints a gloomy picture
for his members for 2007, claiming the country has an oversupply of
inexpensive five-star rooms. President Chanin Donavanik stated that 2007
occupancy rates will not noticeably grow, as supply will outweigh demand. He
added that Thailand’s hotel business would only grow by 6% to 7% this year.
He said one issue facing Thailand’s hotel industry is that of oversupply,
especially in Chiangmai, Pattaya, Samui, and Phuket.
Another issue is that of low hotel rates, especially for five-star
accommodation. Thai hotel rooms are half as much as those in Singapore and
one-third less than rooms in Hong Kong, Shanghai and India.
The president agreed with governmental policies to focus on quality tourism
and the rehabilitation of untouched and damaged attractions. He cautioned
that to compete, Thailand needed to develop new tourism products and take
note of the competition such as Vietnam and China.
The industry is becoming weary of changing slogans and it appears that even
regional offices have invented their own. Recognizing that 2007 will bring a
stream of new, luxury boutique hotels, as well as the emergence of Trang,
Koh Yao, Koh Chang and Koh Racha, a new catch phrase ‘CHIC by Thailand’ has
been launched in the UK to emphasis trendy and luxurious tourism products.
This on top of TAT’s now defunct global catch phrase “Unforgettable
Thailand”, which will be replaced by a re-born “Amazing Thailand” campaign.
Thailand maybe CHIC in the eyes of some; however it is still a difficult
country in the eyes of a number of operators. Long term residents and
retirees are still not allowed to buy land on which to build a home under
their own name. Tourism as a result will never be able to attract VFR
(Visiting Friends and Relatives) traffic as much as other countries, due to
its existing property laws. And also whilst countries like Cambodia and
Macau benefit from gambling tourists, (tiny Macau for instance attracts over
20 million tourists a year), gamblers are not welcome in Thailand.
And finally explaining the current UK market trends for Thailand, Mr. David
Kevan at Tropical Locations (UK) said: “We ended 2006 with a substantial
passenger increase and 2007 looks just as encouraging. Thailand is
constantly evolving so the product range rarely becomes stale, plus you have
good air lift from London with four airlines flying at least once daily to
Bangkok. These two points in particular give Thailand a tremendous advantage
over its competitors and it’s not surprising for most operators that it is
the number one destination in the region by quite a long way - it looks like
being a great 2007.”
Thailand is going Chic for tourists in 2007.
SAS to start thrice weekly
Stockholm - Bangkok
Mark Bode (TTG)
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will launch a thrice-weekly Stockholm-Bangkok
service in October, the carrier has announced.
The new service - which will use Airbus 340 aircraft - is expected to speed
up connections for both the Swedish and Norwegian marks while also improving
convenience, due to the departure schedules being adapted for connections to
and from Oslo.
SAS also operates a daily Copenhagen-Bangkok service.
Bangkok-based Asian Trails managing director, Mr. Roger Haumueller,
applauded the launch of the service.
He said: “Any additional service is welcome. Winter flights from Scandinavia
are very full, so this is very good news.”
SAS has an existing codeshare agreement with national carrier Thai Airways
International that gives the airline’s customers access to numerous markets
in Thailand as well as other Southeast Asian destinations.
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