The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has a new scheme to micro-target niche tourist markets like Indonesian women and Japanese students.
Under the plan, the agency will focus on young tourists from Japan and India, female travellers from Indonesia, Muslim tourists from Malaysia and the high-end market from Vietnam. Moving to niche markets is part of TAT's strategy to spread visitors out of major cities into secondary provinces and promote weekday tourism.
Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of TAT, said it just opened a new office in Japan's Fukuoka to capitalise on high-potential markets in prefectures in the southern part of that country such as Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Ehime, Kochi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa.
Fukuoka is the largest city on Kyushu island, with the region's main business centre and largest international airport.
There are daily direct flights linking Bangkok to Fukuoka, and direct flights between Bangkok and Okinawa by Peach Air. Charter flights operate between Bangkok and some provinces in Kyushu and Chugoku.
A two-year tourism cooperation between TAT and the Kyushu Tourism Promotion Organisation was signed in February this year to promote travel between the two countries.
Mr Yuthasak said TAT will work with Japan's High School Golf Association to organise trips by local tour operators to Thailand, with the aim of increasing visits from students and young tourists from southern Japan. Younger generations have become high-potential markets, along with special interest groups, marathon runners, golfers and divers.
"TAT will continue to promote attractions and activities in secondary provinces to cater to more niche markets from each country based on their interest," he said.
In 2017, Thailand recorded 1.54 million arrivals from Japan, generating 67.5 billion baht, a year-on-year increase of 7.28% and 9.67%, respectively. Japanese tourists spend on average 5,353 baht per day, with an average length of stay of eight days.
Popular Thai destinations for Japanese are Bangkok, Chon Buri, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya.
In January to October 2018, Japanese visitors to Thailand totalled 1.35 million, generating an estimated 58.7 billion baht in tourism income.
In 2018, Japanese tourists to Thailand are projected to increase by 7.52% to 1.63 million, earning an estimated 73.4 billion baht in tourism income, up by 9.01%. In 2019, TAT is targeting 1.68 million Japanese visitors generating an estimated 77.5 billion baht.
For the Indian market, Cholada Siddhivarn, director of TAT's Mumbai office, said the segment is growing significantly thanks to increasing airline links with India's secondary cities.
The sheer geographic, ethnic and cultural diversity of India represents a huge opportunity because of the numerous holidays celebrated by each of the different states and religious groups. In addition, the country has 600 million young people, many of them with both the money and desire to travel.
From January to October 2018, visitors from India to Thailand totalled 1.28 million, an increase of 11.2% from the same period last year.
Busakorn Prommanot, director of the TAT Jakarta office, said the 35% uptick in the number of female Indonesian travellers to Thailand underscores the important role played by women in choosing destinations, which is an opportunity for the organisation. The gender ratio of Indonesian visitors has changed from 45:55 female-to-male in 2013, to 57:43 in 2016.
The number of Indonesians visiting Thailand during first 10 months this year totalled 524,735, a 10.9% increase year-on-year.
For the Malaysia market, 61% of the population is Muslim so tourist destinations need to offer halal food, products and services. Visitors from Malaysia totalled 3.17 million from January to October 2018, growth of 12.7% year-on-year.
Napasorn Kakai, director of the TAT Ho Chi Minh City office, said Thailand has 210 weekly flights linking key cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Dalat to Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai. The TAT projects total visitors from Vietnam to Thailand will exceed 1 million in 2018.
In Vietnam, TAT is starting to penetrate the upper-income market by focusing on fine-dining at Michelin-starred restaurants, health and wellness, family attractions and business travellers.