Chinese travel agents have been heavily discounting unsold flight tickets to China to Thais, who are set to flock to the mainland during the Songkran holiday, in an effort to offset losses from the declining number of Chinese travellers bound for Thailand.
Thanapol Cheewarattanaporn, advisor to the Thai Travel Agents Association, said the number of Thai tourists visiting China has surged since the beginning of this year.
Mr Thanapol, who is also managing director of Quality Express, said Thais view China as a safe destination with convenient transport, helping the country emerge as a rising outbound destination, particularly during Songkran.
Previously, many travel agents pre-booked large numbers of seats on flights serving China, hoping to benefit from booming tourism following the approval of the mutual visa-free scheme.
However, Chinese tourists have been hesitant about visiting Thailand after a Chinese actor was lured from Thailand to a scam centre in Myanmar earlier this year, he said.
The earthquake on March 28 also dealt a blow to the Chinese market, leaving agents unable to sell their tour packages with pre-purchased flight tickets, said Mr Thanapol.
He said some agents offered these tickets to Thai travellers at a discount of up to 50% in an effort to mitigate losses.
Despite incurring losses of 3,000-5,000 baht per ticket, they viewed this strategy as preferable to leaving the tickets unused, which would mean losing roughly 10,000 baht per ticket, said Mr Thanapol.
He said during the Songkran holiday, China will emerge as the top outbound destination, surpassing Japan, though outbound travel might remain stunted because of concerns over the sluggish Thai economy.
The number of Thais visiting China could exceed 1 million this year, potentially overtaking Japan, which attracted more than 1 million Thai travellers last year.
Average prices for tour packages to China start from 15,000 baht, while Japan trips cost a minimum of 30,000 baht, said Mr Thanapol.
He said South Korea is no longer a preferred destination for Thais due to concerns over strict immigration and the requirement for Thais to pre-register for the Korea Electronic Travel Authorization.
