With the holiday season approaching, travel packages for both domestic and outbound trips remain steady amid high living costs and economic pressure.
Chaiyapruk Thongkam, president of the Association of Domestic Travel, said people are still keen to travel domestically, mainly the budget and middle-class segments.
Mr Chaiyapruk said tour packages registered healthy sales for the upcoming three-day weekend holiday, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Day, through to Loy Krathong and Father's Day in the coming months.
For this weekend, the most popular destinations are within 3-4 hours of driving from Bangkok, including Pattaya, Hua Hin, Kanchanaburi and Khao Yai.
As the cool season nears, Thais typically prefer mountainous destinations to enjoy a break from the heat, he said.
In related news, a market survey for the vegetarian festival in Phuket forecast 586,568 visitors generating 8.3 billion baht for the nine-day event ending on Oct 23.
Thais also visited popular vegetarian festivals in other provinces, such as Ratchaburi and Nakhon Pathom, said Mr Chaiyapruk.
Despite the higher costs for food, accommodation and transport, causing tour package prices to increase by 10-20%, there is still demand for travel, he said.
Mr Chaiyapruk said he hopes the government supports domestic tourism through a new phase of the Tour Teaw Thai scheme, which subsidises tour packages, along with developing tourism labour skills in second-tier cities to serve growing demand.
Outbound travel in the final quarter improved from the third quarter as the cool weather and year-end holidays remain the busiest period for both tour groups and independent tourists, said Chotechuang Soorangura, vice-president of the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA).
Most outbound tourists have purchasing power and can afford to pay higher travel prices as rising costs and inflation push up expenses, said Mr Chotechuang.
Outbound package sales are 25% higher this quarter than in 2019, he said.
Mr Chotechuang said the soaring cost of living in Japan would affect some groups with a limited budget as even a weak yen cannot offset the persistent rise in transport and hotel expenses.
These groups might opt for domestic travel instead or other destinations in Southeast Asia, he said.
South Korea and Japan remain the most popular choices among short-haul destinations, which account for 70% of all outbound trips in the fourth quarter. Long-haul trips are dominated by Europe, including the UK, France and Germany, said Mr Chotechuang.
He said Thais are not concerned about terrorist attacks in Europe as many booked trips 2-3 months in advance and choose to avoid dangerous places while travelling.
For this weekend, Mr Chotechuang said most outbound trips are to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore.
He predicts 6-6.5 million outbound travellers this year, lower than an earlier TTAA forecast of 7 million and below the 2019 level of 11 million.