PHUKET, 28 FEBRUARY 2024: As the travel fervour stoked by the recently-concluded Chinese New Year cools down, travel platform Trip.com featured its “Super World Trip BOSS Live” livestream show in Phuket on 28 February.
The latest edition made a stop in Phuket ahead of the Songkran festival, collaborating with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which featured deals on flights, hotels, accommodations and tour packages to Thailand.
The bargains included top hotels in popular destinations such as the livestream venue Katathani Phuket Beach Resort. It offered a discount of over 70%.
The livestream was the second hosted by Trip.com in Thailand this year, with the first session on 31 January achieving a total Gross Merchandise Value of more than THB200 million.
The Songkran festival season deals come hot on the heels of the popular Chinese New Year travel period, which saw 194,275 travellers from China visiting Thailand during the week of 5-11 February 2024 – the largest group of visitors from any country in that week.
These numbers further entrench China as Thailand’s top source of tourists in the year to date, thanks to the visa-free travel policy enacted by the Thai authorities last September. The visa-free policy will be made permanent and mutual on 1 March.
With more Chinese travellers opting to head to Thailand thanks to the convenience of visa-free travel and the delectable cuisine and breathtaking landscapes, the Land of Smiles has seen 4.4 million tourists visit this year, a 48% spike compared to last year. The government aims to hit 35 million visitors in 2024, with Chinese tourists projected to make up some 8 million — or more than one-fifth — of that target.
