CHIANG RAI, 12 April 2023: Thailand welcomed the first post-Covid-19 overland caravan tour from China earlier this week when 231 cars with 778 occupants crossed the border at the Thailand – Laos Friendship Bridge at Chiang Khong in this far northern province.
It marks the first official car caravan to travel from Kunming in China to Thailand via Laos since 2019.
Officials from Chiang Rai province and the Tourism Authority of Thailand director for Chiang Rai and Phayao provinces, Wisut Buachum, welcomed the group that arrived in two separate batches on the 10 and 11 April.
The caravan trip was organised by Chinese travel agents and Kunming tourism officials following China’s lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions on 8 January 2023.
According to the TAT, the most recent statistics for Chinese tourists entering Thailand from January to March 2023 via the Chiang Khong border checkpoint stood at 1,561 tourists (all nationalities) using 84 vehicles (mostly buses). No details were given, but officials noted it was far below the 2019 figure for overland trips crossing the bridge.
Thailand tightened its car self-drive tour rules following negative media reports claiming Chinese overlanders were using campervans and parking on streets near tourist attractions. The argument hovered around low revenue earned from Chinese car tours while suggesting Chinese drivers caused accidents due to being unfamiliar with Thai driving habits.
But technically, caravan tours using private cars can still be organised if using a registered travel agency and complying with strict rules relating to cars and drivers introduced in 2016.
The TAT Kunming office claims overland caravans are back for northern Thailand destinations such as Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, extending even to Sukhothai in central Thailand. But the long-term plan is to open caravan tour routes to Sukhothai, Bangkok, Chonburi (Pattaya), Khon Kaen and Udon Thani.
The return of car caravan tourism to North Thailand focused on the 15-day trip that started last week on an overland R3A route from Kunming City with stops at the Bohan Checkpoint (China) – Bo Ten (Laos) – Huai Sai Checkpoint (Laos) – Chiang Khong Border Checkpoint (4th Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge) and then heading south to Sukhothai for the Songkran Festival later this week.
Participants in the caravan tour came mainly from cities in Yunnan plus Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Some years back, the potential of self-drive car tours from China to the Mekong Region gained an airing on the sidelines of the ASEAN Tourism Forum in 2019, held at Halong Bay, Vietnam, just one year before Covid-19 locked down regional tourism.
During the government meetings held at the ATF 2019, leading tourism officials from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam discussed ways to promote self-drive holidays between the four countries. They formed a think tank covering the CLTV countries to take a closer look at self-drive tours. The subject is again on the table now that the Covid-19 pandemic is in full retreat.
For years travel leaders in the Mekong Region tourism industry have been arguing the case for two-way, self-drive holidays that cross international borders. However, the snags include strict national legislation banning right-hand-drive cars, restrictive police escort rules and driving licence regulations.
Thailand also tightened rules for cars crossing the border with Laos in 2016. Strict rules virtually ended the self-drive option for Chinese holidaymakers, who travelled through Laos to visit Chiang Rai province in North Thailand in the hundreds during the cool season months.
In response to recommendations to revisit overland self-drive holidays in the four countries back in 2019, Thai tourism expert Pasit Poomchusri posted on Facebook: “I was a joint draftsman of the ASEAN vision on this and was the first person to talk about promoting single car travel…not caravans in the four countries.”
Self-drive holidays in the region are part of the ASEAN 2025 vision, but he warned that the experience had to be convenient and safe, as in Europe…It could be a 20-year wait.”
Another tourism expert, Mana Chobthum, added in a Facebook post: “The grouping of CLVT tourists markets is OK, but we should look at the bigger picture and consider travel from ASEAN neighbours, not just China.
