More Thai travellers are interested in exotic destinations within the region and beyond. But many of their destinations will remain unchanged because of proximity and familiarity, according to a survey by Skyscanner.
The website, a global meta-search engine for information about flights, hotels and car hire, said the city with the highest growth in interest among Thais for next year is Da Lat, Vietnam, up 859% in flight searches from last year.
Others on the list included Jaipur, India (367% growth), Tbilisi, Georgia (125%), Amman, Jordan (39%) and Cape Town, South Africa (31%). Japan's Okinawa saw 33% growth year-on-year in flight searches.
In addition, more premium travel bookings are expected for Thais in the coming year thanks to buoyant competition forcing full-service airlines to lower airfare.
Mr Jatupol says Thais are becoming increasingly more prepared for trips.
Jatupol Rahothan, senior growth marketing manager of Skyscanner, said Thai travellers are becoming more well-prepared when planning for travel to get the best deals, especially in airfare.
He said Thais begin their searches in advance, even when using a single travel booking website. With more and more airlines and online travel agents running promotions and flash sales, it is not surprising that more travellers do their research in advance before committing to a particular airfare.
In the forecast for 2018, Skyscanner saw an increase in the number of search days from 43 days before departure to 45 days. On the other hand, for 2019, the travel booking website used will remain the same and this trend is expected to continue, Mr Jatupol said.
Data also shows premium travel services in Thai outbound travel will increase, judging from high growth in very interesting destinations searched for and rising demand for more exotic experience when they travel.
Thai travellers will be challenged when they come to booking tickets to destinations as a myriad of promotions and flash sales will continue in the year ahead. These trends are consistent with overall Asia-Pacific travel behaviour, he said.
Skyscanner data also indicates that there will be a ticket price decrease to key interest cities, which may increase their potential to bring new growth for Thai travellers in the coming year.
The forecast also says 2019 will be the best year to travel to the US as the average fare from full service flight will be discounted by about 12-15% to key cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Portland and Dallas.
In Asia, an 11% decrease in airfare is expected for Busan in South Korea, a 10%-12% discount to Leh and Kolkata in India, a 14% discount to Male in Maldives, and a 10% discount to Bali, Indonesia. Additionally, prices to Taiwan, Greece and the Philippines are also expected to decrease by an average of 4-6% next year.
The lower airfare would drive more Thais to get business class bookings together with other countries in Asia-Pacific including Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Both business and premium economy might be gaining popularity due to a 6-10% average price drop as well as a desire to elevate travel experiences.
Skyscanner's forecast for this year is for 36% more business class bookings and 24% in premium economy. Thai travellers are more likely to pay more for premium economy class for international travel (43% growth), but when it comes to short-haul international or domestic flights, Thai travellers are more willing to splurge for business class seats (over 35%).