Thai inbound hotel demand up 10 per cent, says Expedia
TR AV EL platform Expedia Group has released its latest hotel demand trends for Thailand, which show that Thai accommodation partners are enjoy ing steady grow th, with overa ll inbound demand increasing by 10 per cent over the past 12 months.
Based on demand generated by Expedia Group’s extensive portfolio of travel brands, the US remains the largest market to Thailand, with demand growing by 20 per cent year on year.
China is the second-largest market to Thailand, surpassing Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea for t he first time in t wo years.
Alongside China’s strong performance, India a lso upped its game, moving up three ranks to gain a place in Thai’s top 10 internationa l markets.
Noteworthy is that Chinese and Indian travellers show growing appetite for premium accommodation, with more than 60 per cent of the bookings made by Chinese and 55 per cent of those made by Indians being in 4-star and 5-star hotels, Expedia said.
This trend is in line wit h t he Thai government’s focus to attract more high-end arriva ls from China and India.
In terms of popular destinations, Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, unsurprisingly, are the most v isited cities among Chinese and Indian travellers.
Hua Hin (110 per cent grow th year-onyear), Koh Phi Phi (100 per cent grow th) and Koh Lipe (100 per cent grow th) emerge as the rising markets wit h triple-digit demand increases during the same period.
Expedia data uncovered that Chinese travellers are t he driv ing force behind strong 50per-cent demand grow th for packages into Thailand.
Almost one in three internationa l package bookings were made by Chinese.
China is a lso the fastest-growing market for packages, as demand sk y rocketed by 200 per cent year on year.
India is trending i n t he same direction, with package demand up by 160 per cent.
Other markets track ing triple-digit grow th in package demand include Ireland (130 per cent), South Korea (120 per cent) and Indonesia (100 per cent).