Thailand collaborates with Chinese tech giants to boost tourism

Tourists visit Wat Arun temple in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan. 18, 2023. Photo by Reuters

Thailand is set to cooperate with ByteDance's Douyin (a Chinese social media platform similar to TikTok) to produce travel content to attract prospective travelers, Bloomberg reported.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, led by Deputy Governor Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, will also organize roadshows and familiarization trips for Chinese media and travel agents, developing targeted marketing campaigns on Chinese social media, and offering special promotions for Chinese tourists, according to a news conference held last week.

Thailand's target is to draw in 40 million tourists in 2024, generating an estimated $87 billion in revenue. The country aims to more than double its Chinese tourist arrivals, reaching 8.2 million from the 3.5 million projected for 2023, Chattan said at the conference, as cited by Xinhua.

He said it has signed an agreement with Fliggy, a Chinese travel platform owned by Alibaba Group, to promote Thailand as a safe destination, and will also roll out promotions with Chinese technology giant Huawei, Chinese shopping platform Meituan, Chinese carrier Spring Airlines and Sina News.

China, the largest group of tourists for Thailand before the pandemic, has seen a significant drop from 11 million arrivals in 2019 to about 3 million in 2023.

Thailand introduced a visa waiver for Chinese tourists in September, but a shopping mall shooting that killed a Chinese tourist in Bangkok in October has affected tourist confidence.