Tourism operators are urging the government to boost the Chinese market as Beijing continues to support domestic tourism, with some key cities even banning overseas chartered flights.
A source in the tourism industry who requested anonymity said a private Chinese tour company that planned to operate chartered flights from Beijing to Thailand was prevented from doing so by China's aviation authorities, prompting it to seek alternative routes.
According to the source, the Chinese government's policy of promoting domestic travel has been successful throughout the country, but a few cities or provinces had adopted strict measures to prevent their residents from travelling abroad, particularly Beijing, which is the centre of the country's administration.
Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said the association had not received any reports of bans on charter flights in other Chinese provinces.
In general, the Chinese market would decline due to sluggish economic conditions, not the government's policies. Tour operators were reluctant to plan chartered flights as they are uncertain about the level of travel demand.
As of July 21, Chinese visitors tallied 3.9 million, remaining the top market among all international arrivals, but was still less than half of the 8 million visitors targeted for this year.
Mr Sisdivachr said Thailand might be able to secure 7 million Chinese travellers by the end of this year. In order to accelerate the number to hit the target, he said the government should help promote group travellers from second-tier cities, encouraging them to spend for travel.
After a Chinese-language billboard offering passports and citizenship of several countries was recently taken down on the orders of the prime minister, Mr Sisdivachr said such unusual businesses should be actively cracked down on as they might help ill-intentioned visitors run illegal businesses in Thailand.
"Law enforcement should be stricter than this. These citizenship services might help facilitate those in illegal tour businesses who dump the tour package prices until the whole market has been affected," he said.
Besides the economic downturn in China, flight resumption has been regarded as the critical factor for recovery.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, seat capacity from northern China, which comprises key cities like Beijing, has been reduced to 26,600 seats per week, from 46,000 seats before the pandemic, as the number of flights have been slashed from 189 to 131 per week.