Thailand
TAT taps Vietnamese market
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans to tap second-tier provinces in Vietnam to bring in more first-time visitors.
These provinces, namely Hai Phong, Nha Trang, Da Lat and Can Tho, offer direct flights with affordable tickets to Thailand, said Napasorn Kakai, director of the TAT’s Ho Chi Minh City office.
She said the TAT since October has been working with agencies in Nha Trang and Can Tho to promote tour packages to Thailand, and 1,000 people have already bought packages.
Next year, the agency plans to partner with local online travel agents like TripU, the travel application provider operated by Vietravel, and iVIVU.com, Vietnam’s first online hotel and tour booking website, to let people book their trips online.
Thailand has been a top destination of Vietnamese travellers since 2017.
Last year, the number of Vietnamese outbound tourists was 9 million out of a population of 97 million. Of the travellers, 1.07 million visited Thailand, generating 33 billion baht in tourism income. The average spending per trip was 32,000 baht, with four days and three nights the average length of stay.
In the first 11 months of 2019, some 900,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Thailand, contributing about 30 billion baht in revenue.
Mrs Napasorn said Thailand will continue to be a preferred destination for Vietnamese tourists, with a growth rate of 2-3%, thanks to the free-visa entry afforded to citizens of Asean member countries under the Asean Framework Agreement on Visa Exemption.
Moreover, there are more direct flights offered by airlines of both countries. The number of flights between the two countries is now 301 a week, up from 288 a week last year, she said.
New routes to beach destinations in Thailand have been offered since October by Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City to Phuket, with three flights a week.
Starting from Dec 23, Thai VietJet Air will begin a daily flight from Ho Chi Minh City to U-tapao airport in Rayong.
Mrs Napasorn said rivals for travellers’ attention include South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, which has famous beaches in Bali.
She said 479,000 Vietnamese tourists visited South Korea from January to October, higher than last year’s figure of 457,000.
South Korea provides 403 flights a week to Vietnam, with a large number of South Koreans in Vietnam. There are 301 flights from Thailand to Vietnam, 143 from Japan and 19 from Indonesia.
The Korean Wave of pop culture and expertise in health and wellness have attracted Vietnamese to the peninsula.
Despite the challenges, Mrs Napasorn voiced confidence that Thailand would remain a preferred destination for the Vietnam market because of the variety of shopping spots in Bangkok and other urban areas.
She said the TAT has plans to attract more Vietnamese. Ten local media outlets such as national TV, VTV and online media will be invited to a familiarisation trip in Bangkok starting Dec 11.
The trip will promote new attractions for independent tourists to visit Thailand on the weekends, especially during long holidays like the Tet celebration at the end of January.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1811674/tat-taps-vietnamese-market