Mexico emerges as tourism contributor
TAT sees promise in long-haul Americas
Tourism from the long-haul Americas market has shown growth, especially from Mexico, which has emerged as a promising source of tourists thanks to Thailand’s exemption from visa-onarrival fees for Mexican visitors.
The number of Mexican arrivals in the first nine months rose to 22,216, up 11.8% year-on-year, outpacing growth from the entire Americas market, which stayed at 2%, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
Runjuan Tongrut, the TAT’s executive director for the Americas, said that in addition to the fee waiver, more flight connections from international airlines such as All Nippon Airways, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and China Southern helped raise the number of Mexican visitors.
Visitors from Mexico and 18 other nations are enjoying a 2,000-baht visaon-arrival fee waiver until April 30, 2020.
Ms Runjuan said a similar taste for spicy food, beautiful beaches and warm water have made Thailand a preferred destination for Mexican tourists.
The growing market prompted the TAT to hold tourism showcases in Mexico City and Cancun last month.
The events are expected to help increase growth from the market to 10% from some 30,000 Mexican arrivals this year, Ms Runjuan said. In 2018, 27,300 Mexican tourists visited Thailand, up 9% from the year before.
The TAT is also focusing on other countries in the Americas, notably Canada and the US.
In Canada, the authority has partnered with 349-year-old Hudson’s Bay department store in Toronto to host a tourism promotional campaign via online and offline communications to create recognition among highend tourists.
“During the first phase of our partnership between July and August, we used the customer relationship management software of the store to offer tourism packages with Expedia.ca to attract customers to visit Thailand during the low season,” Ms Runjuan said.
A total of 1,061 tour packages were bought during the campaign. In the second phase to be carried out during October to December, the store expects to sell more than 1,500 packages.
Moreover, incentive trip packages for customers who use the Hudson’s Bay Credit Card (1.3 million users) and Reward Card (3.1 million users) will be included.
Ms Runjuan said more department stores in other big cities will join the tourism campaign in the future.
In the US, the TAT launched a campaign with high-end department store Neiman Marcus earlier this year.
Ms Runjuan said that even with the prolonged US-China trade war, people are continuing with travel plans and there is impressive growth from the US market.
The TAT forecasts tourist arrivals from the US to reach 1.1 million this year, up from 1.01 million in 2018.
Overall tourism arrivals in the region are tipped for 5.8% growth with a 10% increase in tourism receipts.
The Tourism and Sports Ministry tallied 1.06 million tourists from the Americas during January to August this year, up 2.1% year-on-year, contributing about 75 billion baht in tourism receipts, up almost 2%.