Bangkok – Thailand continues to attract the most interest from top inbound travellers to the country according to recent TripAdvisor inbound travel data and analysis of online search behaviour.
China led the way with the highest percentage increase in search traffic, with a year-on-year increase of 30%, outpacing the overall international average of 4%. India and Indonesia followed in second and third place, with year-on-year search increases of 16% and 12%, respectively.
The results support arrival statistics from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which noted that China and Russia were also two of the largest contributors to Thailand’s inbound tourism and inbound expenditure in the first half of 2017.
Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor said, “The data unveiled both what inbound countries were most interested in Thailand, as well as the most searched destinations in the country. It also provided insightful information on international travel behaviour.”
Mr. Grant Colquhoun, TripAdvisor spokesperson, said that “Thailand has something for every traveller with its tropical beaches, heritage towns, delicious food, and an ever cosmopolitan capital city. The inbound travel data that is available on TripAdvisor provides local hospitality businesses and service providers with insights on travel trends and consumer behaviour to help them more effectively capture and cater to a global audience of high intent travellers.”
He added, “We are also encouraged to see that accommodation in Thailand is becoming more engaged on TripAdvisor with 53% of them responding to travel reviews within the last month.”
When examining the total inbound search traffic for Thailand, China tops the list followed by the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Russia.
Among Chinese travellers searching for Thailand, there was also increased interest from residents of second-tier cities in Hangzhou, Dalian and Qingdao. The surge in interest comes as the China Tourism Academy (CTA) shared that second and third-tier cities in China are fast catching up as key outbound tourism markets, due to increasing disposable income and improved flight connectivity to Southeast Asia.
The top five Chinese cities with the biggest increase in traveller interest to Thailand on TripAdvisor:
(Year-on-year growth)
1. Beijing 102%
2. Hangzhou 91%
3. Dalian 81%
4. Qingdao 65%
5. Shanghai 61%
Thailand’s tropical islands continue to pique the interest of all international travellers, with the resort town of Krabi seeing the highest year-on-year increase in searches at 41%.
Top five Thai destinations with the biggest increase in international travel searches on TripAdvisor included:
1 Krabi 41%
2 Kathu 37%
3 Nai Yang 31%
4 Chiang Mai 10%
4 Hat Yai 10%
*Exact percentages rounded to zero decimal points.
