Bookings see 30% surge

Bookings see 30% surge

Travel website Expedia saw room-night bookings for Thai hotels surge 30% in the first 11 months of the year, reflecting the country's strong tourism recovery.

Mrs Pimpawee says room-night booking growth exceeded Expedia's target.

"The 11-month room-night booking growth has exceeded our target of 20%," said Pimpawee Nopakitgumjorn, director of market management at Expedia Thailand. "This confirms that we have brought in more foreign tourists."

The increase is in line with a plan of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to attract quality travellers.

Mrs Pimpawee declined to reveal total room-nights in Thailand for the period but said the bookings were made through the group's network, which includes Expedia.com, Hotels.com and other booking websites.

According to the TAT, the top five inbound markets for Thailand are China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and India.

An Expedia survey of the first nine months of 2016 found that travellers from Hong Kong generated the highest proportion of stays in Thailand's five-star hotels, followed by the US and Japan.

For stays in four-star hotels, Hong Kong tourists again ranked first, followed by Singapore and Australia.

Russian tourists made the highest percentage of stays in three-star hotels, followed by Finland and Malaysia. Spanish tourists topped the list for two-star hotels, followed by those from Indonesia and Finland.

"Russian visitors stay the longest, with six days on average, then visitors from Italy and Austria with five days and Norway and Australia with four days," Mrs Pimpawee said.

For Bangkok, the top three countries sending visitors are Japan, the US and Hong Kong, while Australia and Britain send the most to Phuket.

Expedia said Thai hoteliers should target travellers from Switzerland, Hong Kong and the US, as they pay the most for their rooms when visiting Thailand.

Travellers from Oceania and Europe are booking the furthest in advance, averaging more than two months ahead of their stays.

International feeder markets with the most notable growth in the first nine months were Brazil (100%), Belgium (80%), Sweden (70%), Austria (70%) and Switzerland (60%).

"Expedia faced no effect from the zero-dollar tour crackdown, as the number of hotel bookings by Chinese tourists did not fall," Mrs Pimpawee said.

Expedia now has 10,100 hotel partners in Thailand as of Nov 30, up from 8,000 hotels at the end of last year.

The hotels can access the Expedia Partner Central platform to update their room rates, information and the number of available rooms on a real-time basis.

Moreover, Expedia also has a real-time feedback system to inform hoteliers about customer opinions when they stay in their hotels.

Hotel partners can benefit from the exposure of 450 million monthly visits across Expedia's travel brands such as Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Wotif, Orbitz Worldwide and Asia Asia Expedia.

Expedia now has 200 sites in 75 countries and in 35 languages.

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