SINGAPORE, 20 October 2023: Global travel service provider Trip.com Group and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to cooperate to boost travel to Thailand.
The collaboration aims to promote Thailand as the premier travel hotspot for tourists from the Chinese mainland.
Trip.com Group vice president of global destinations Amanda Wang and the Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool
signed the LOI in Beijing, China. It was part of an official visit by a high-level delegation to China led by Thailand’s Srettha Thavisin
Wang said: “Thailand has consistently captivated the hearts of travellers from the Chinese mainland, establishing itself as an irresistible destination. With the recent introduction of visa-free travel to Thailand, we foresee this trend of travel to Thailand continuing, and look forward to working closely with TAT to bring more tourists to the Land of Smiles.”
Thapanee added: “The signing of this Letter of Intent signifies a new phase of comprehensive cooperation in promoting Thai tourism in the Chinese market.
“The Tourism Authority of Thailand will use this as a framework to continue our close collaboration and make every effort to ensure the safety and security of tourists travelling to Thailand. We will also organise promotional activities to attract more tourists from mainland China to Thailand, promoting the high-quality development of our tourism sector.”
The LOI signed between the two parties will augment existing partnerships and harness the insights of Trip.com Group on Chinese travellers.
It will entail knowledge and information sharing, joint promotional activities, and establishing formal communication channels for regular bilateral tourism updates. It formalises an established and fruitful working relationship between the two parties, a notable recent example being January’s Thailand edition of the Group’s “Super World Trip” series of livestreams.
The three-hour livestream session targeting the outbound mainland Chinese audience recorded sales of more than 20,000 room nights, amounting to a Gross Merchandise Value of over RMB40 million, featuring almost 60 products, including attractions, tickets and staycation packages at hotels across Thailand.
Thailand was one of the top destinations for Chinese tourists during the recent Golden Week holidays, with outbound travel volume to Thailand at over 11 times the 2022 volume for the same period.
Compared to this year’s May Day holidays, volume was up by 27.6%. After the announcement of visa-free travel for Chinese travellers last month, searches for Thai destinations across Trip.com Group’s platforms soared by 800%.
