Thailand seen attractive for incentive travel
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THAILAND has become a popular destination for incentive tourism - free trips offered to a company's employees - thanks to competitive packages and political stability.
Supawan Tanomkieatipume, vice president of the Thai Hotels Association, said this country had become one of most popular destinations for incentive travel, particularly from Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan.
She said Thailand was a much cheaper destination for this kind of travel than neighbouring countries like Singapore and Malaysia.
Moreover, foreigners now feel confident about their safety while visiting the Kingdom as political problems have been subdued.
“This year, many foreign companies, especially in Asia, have picked Thailand as the best option for sending their employees on vacations. Thailand has all kinds of attractions, [more than] other nations,” Supawan said.
She said Singapore was also a good place for a vacation but too expensive for large groups. Vietnam, meanwhile, is able to serve incentive tours with its attractions but |still needs to improve its management.
Juthaporn Rerngronasa, acting governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said more than 12,700 employees of Infinitus (China) Co had been given free trips to Thailand. Bangkok and Pattaya are the key destinations of the tours, which are being held in a series that started last Sunday.
She expects total spending of about Bt600 million from the tours, which will run until May 26.
About 3,000 Infinitus employees are being flown in at a time. Each group will stay for six nights at four- or five-star hotels. They will need a total of 38,000 hotel rooms. The employees are being brought in on 110 flights.
Juthaporn said their arrivals would boost the low-season tourism market.
“A report on a Chinese company’s free trips for 6,400 employees to France was widely shared in social media. Indeed, Thailand is also a key destination for Chinese companies’ incentive tours,” she said.
Kasian Watanachaopisut, president of the Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association, said China had became Thailand’s biggest source of tourists over the past few years, with expectations of 6 million arrivals from that country this year.
“Thai hotels and travel companies are eyeing the China market, as it is an emerging market and also has a huge proportion of high-spending tourists,” he said.
Earlier, 115 travel operators in Thailand agreed to use a new standard contract rate for optional packages at 600 yuan (about Bt3,000) per tourist, to encourage more Chinese people travel to this country.
