Hotel Big Wigs Say 100 Million Tourists ‘achievable’
Hotel Big Wigs Say 100 Million Tourists ‘achievable’
The private and government tourism operators must work together to help develop better tourism facilities and infrastructure to accommodate the ever-increasing number of foreign travellers to Thailand, says Dusit Thani Plc Executive Committee’s Chairman – Mr. Chanin Donavanik.
Thailand has immense tourism potential leading to a projected tourist arrival increase of about 100 million, similar to that of France, provided the country develops better infrastructure, Chanin Donavanic stated.
Fact: According to the UN World Tourism Organisation, France recorded in excess of 85 million foreign tourist numbers in 2016.
Mr. Chanin Donavanic also mentioned that Thailand had to better its domestic and international airports to have adequate capacity to bear the burden of this drastic increase in foreign traveller numbers in the coming years.
Fact: Thailand welcomed about 32.5 million foreign travellers in 2016.
Some more points mentioned by Mr. Chanin are summarised below: –
- The immigration process that tourists who arrive at international airports must go through must be shortened and made more convenient and hassle-free.
- Thailand tourism industry can increase its potential by boosting its infrastructure together with finding a way to shorten the long immigration ques at all major airports.
- Thailand’s small number of tourist hot-spots create an influx of tourists at these locations only, often causing hardships for their locals who at times find it hard to harness enough resources to cater to such unforeseen volume of demands. The government must work to create new tourist hot-spots and introduce a quota on tourists for every day they spend at an exquisite destination, much like other popular tourist hot-spots around the world.
- The measures mentioned in the above points will help protect tourism infrastructure and the natural environment together with helping increase prices. Thailand is famously known to be an economical tourist destination due to its low pricing strategy.
- The prices of local hotel rooms on average are cheapest compared to others in the region and he believes that Thailand’s good enough to construct and deliver expensive services and products. Thailand’s issue is not with the ever-increasing number of foreign travellers but the way in which they manage their resources to cater to this growth.
- The improving Asean economy and growth of the middle class, which is projected to reach the 200-300 million mark in the region by the year 2020, will benefit Thai tourism. Of that middle class, some 80% is expected to travel across Asean.
Mr Chanin also anticipates the number of Asean travellers visiting Thailand in 2017 to surpass Chinese travellers, which made-up about 30% of the total number of foreign travellers last year.
He continued to state that the Thai government must get a hold on the zero-dollar tour operators to help improve Thailand’s image.
High-income and well-educated Chinese travellers are ever-ready to spend their money on quality services and products, he mentioned.
The 19th of January 2017 saw Mr Chanin together with his partners launch a brand-new book titled – Thailand Tourism: The Early Days (facts date back to the 1950s).
Mr Chanin hopes that this book will not merely help preserve the memorable stories of Thailand tourism industry’s early pioneers, but also be a source of inspiration for the new generation working in the hospitality sector to follow in their footsteps.
Keywords/phrases – Mr Chanin, Chanin Donavanic, Foreign Travellers, Thailand Tourism Industry, tourist hot-spot.
