TAT targets young Indian tourists to compensate missing China income

China was Thailand’s biggest market for foreign tourists pre-Covid, but the country has issued a travel ban for its citizens amid fresh lockdowns.

“The India market was growing rapidly before the Covid-19 outbreak, with 19.95 million Indian travellers visiting Thailand in 2019, growing 24.8 from a year earlier and generating 86.37 billion baht of tourism income,” said Thanes Phetsuwan, TAT deputy governor of marketing for Asia and South Pacific on Friday.

Meanwhile, about 160,000 Thais visited India in 2019.

TAT expects at least 12 Thai and Indian airlines to join the travel bubble scheme.

“We also expect to see seat occupancy to average about 70 per cent for flights from India to Thailand, which will offer considerable compensation for lack of income from Chinese tourists.”

Thanes added that TAT will target young Indian tourists who favour travelling to the Asia-Pacific region.

“This group consists of about 600 million people or 42 per cent of India’s total population of 1.4 billion. It is also bigger than the population of Chinese under 25 years old, at around 400 million people,” he said.

The targeted new-gen Indians would also high-spending tourists planning weddings in Thailand, he added.

Last month, Thai and Indian tourism operators were matched at a “Hotel Meet Local Agent (India & South Asia Market)” event in Bangkok, organised by the TAT and Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) in the wake of the travel bubble. The event was joined by 35 travel agencies, 60 hotels and 10 tourist attraction operators.

“With targeted marketing campaigns under the travel bubble, TAT estimates that this year up to 500,000 Indian tourists will visit Thailand and generate income of 24 billion baht,” said Thanes. “Spending per tourist is expected to average 70,000 baht per eight-day trip.”