THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Hoteliers hail duty cut for luxury imports

Hoteliers hail duty cut for luxury imports

Move makes Kingdom a more attractive shopping destination to Chinese tourists

Thailand may become more attractive as a shopping destination for Chinese tourists after the government curbs the import tax on luxury goods, despite the signs of an economic slowdown in China, according to Hotel.com, regionally based in Hong Kong.
Peter Lee, senior market management director for Asia-Pacific at Hotel.com, said Thailand was one of the top three destinations for outbound mainland Chinese last year, behind the United States and Hong Kong, based on the website’s compilation.
He said a Hotel.com survey of more than 3,000 Chinese international travellers and 1,500 hoteliers worldwide in May found that 51 per cent of respondents said one of the most popular activities at their travel  destination was shopping, while 75 per cent said their purpose was sightseeing.In Thailand, hotel partners participating in the survey said 69 per cent of their Chinese guests liked to go shopping. However, Lee expects more Chinese would come here for shopping if brand-named products were less expensive. He noted that country’s economic prosperity, its growing number of middle-income earners, and an increase in air links between Chinese cities and the Kingdom.
Some 109 hotel partners from Thailand participated in the survey, and 84 per cent of them said the number of Chinese independent travellers had been on the rise in the past two years. It found that 82 per cent of their Chinese guests stayed at their hotels for two to three days.
The survey found that when in Thailand, 52 per cent of Chinese liked to stay at three- or four-star hotels. Free Wi-Fi was the most common request from Chinese guests at 77 per cent, followed by smoking rooms (49 per cent), in-house Mandarin-speaking staff (45 per cent), Chinese TV programmes (43 per cent), and Chinese breakfasts (35 per cent).
Over the next 12 months, the hotel operators responding to the survey said, they plan to offer services including Mandarin-speaking staff (35 per cent), hotel websites in Chinese language and translated welcome materials (34 per cent each), Chinese breakfasts (32 per cent), and Chinese newspapers or magazines (29 per cent).
Lee said it was essential that Thai hotel operators understand the demands and lifestyles of Chinese tourists to keep them coming. The survey found that 47 per cent of Thailand’s hoteliers invested in programmes or products catering specially to Chinese guests over the past 12 months.
Currently, more than 2,200 hotels in Thailand post on Hotel.com to lure bookings. It is looking for new properties to add to its website to serve rising demand, especially from Chinese.
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