Thais bank on social media

Thai travellers are more willing than those of neighbouring nations to share personal data with travel service providers in return for more personal experience, a recent study has found. As well, Thai travellers are more willing to update the trip using social media.
Johan Nordqvist, regional director of Amadeus Asia Pacific said that the firm has collaborated with YouGov in an online research project with the title “Journey of Me Insights: What Asia Pacific Travellers Want”. A total of 6,870 respondents from 14 counฌtries in Asia Pacific, including 400 respondents from Thailand, participated in the survey this past May.
The research focussed on four areas. 
Research in the first area, “There are many Asias within Asia,” discovered that Thai respondents display some unique characteristics in comparison to other participants. The have a higher proportion, at 47 per cent of respondents, who report booking accommodation in advance of booking a flight and destination transportation (compared to a regional average of 35 per cent).
The second section on personalised privacy found that 79 per cent of Thai travellers share personal data to travel service providers in exchange for more relevant offers and personalised experiences, compared to a regional average of 64 per cent of travellers,
Nordqvist said that for the third area, “Get real – recommendations they can trust”, Asia Pacific travellers seek what’s genฌuine, and turn to their follow travellers for inspiration. However, social media savvy Thais, at 47 per cent, prefer to receive updates and recommendations on social media, more than double the regional average of 19 per cent.
For the last area, “The right conฌtent, through the right channel, at the right time”, the research reported that in the world of travel, every engagement point matters. Beyond personalisation, connecting with travellers in a timely and intuitive manner is fundamentally important.
The survey found the vast majorฌity of Thai travellers would be interested in receiving travel recommendations from the moment they consider a trip all the way through their actual travel. Industry players must consider carefully how to connect with them and with what content, the report said. Thai travellers, at 47 per cent, prefer to receive updates and recommendations about their trip through social media, compared with only 17 per cent happy to connect via email, the preferred choice of channel for the average Apac traveller. 
“As travellers expect today to be more savvy and better informed, travel and its elements of surprise, magic and wonder have become increasingly challenging to achieve. We really understand the travellers’ [desire] to get new experience,” said Nordqvist.
The Thai report is part of a wider report, “Journey of Me Insights” which was conducted in collaboration with YouGov across 14 markets in Asia Pacific including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 
“Amadeus believes that today, travelling is not the same. People have their own different vision in travel. People expect much more personalisation. Providers need to understand traveller insights. There are many behaviours, needs and attitudes,” said the regional director.
 “One of the findings is that Asia is the largest travel region around the world at around US$1 trillion. Some 40 per cent of tourists are from China, which is increasing every year. Thailand needs to get ready. Only 9 per cent of the people own passports.”
The study found a large group of travellers are open to sharing their personal information. 
In Thailand, 79 per cent are open to sharing, while 30 per cent in Japan are willing to volunteer.
“Thailand is one of the largest marฌkets in Apac,” said Nordqvist. “The millennials are less willing to share their info than the baby boomers.”