Thailand’s tourism goal in doubt as Chinese travellers opt for Japan

Thailand’s ambitious goal of attracting as many as 9 million tourists from China this year looks in doubt, after the kidnapping of a Chinese actor started driving mainland visitors to the safety of Japan and Singapore.

Flight cancellations to the country that brands itself as the “Land of Smiles” surged 94 per cent last month, according to Bloomberg Intelligence research, as more Chinese opted instead to take their families to the ski fields and hot springs of Japan during Lunar New Year.

Trips to Thailand in the first two weeks of February were still lagging behind last year’s levels, the note showed.

News of Chinese actor Wang Xing’s kidnapping to Myanmar through Thailand and his subsequent rescue prompted a wave of Lunar New Year trip cancellations by mainland travellers. Tourism-reliant Thailand has since cracked down on scammers and criminal rings that use the country as a transit hub to traffic unwitting victims to work in cyber-scam centres. But so far it has done little to ease travellers’ fears.

“Safety concerns do have enough weight with Chinese tourists to make them think twice about travel to Thailand,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Zhu said. “Uptake of bad news has been far higher than steps it’s taken to boost safety, which will make its reputation repair a likely uphill battle.”

Flight bookings from China to Japan have, meanwhile, more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, thanks also to the weaker yen and airfares as low as US$150 from Shanghai to Tokyo.