Dragon Trail Research’s latest sentiment report for Spring 2024 has revealed a significant shift in safety perceptions regarding Thailand among Chinese travellers, following concerted efforts by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the Thai government to reassure and attract visitors.
“While South-east Asian destinations continue to attract safety fears, Thailand’s score has improved notably, with only 38 per cent rating it as unsafe, down from a high of 51 per cent in August 2023, and 24 per cent said it was safe compared to 18 per cent last year,” stated Janice Meng, market research analyst at Dragon Trail International (DTI) during a Zoom webinar that introduced report findings.
She credited the improvement to the Thai Always Care online communication campaign, rolled out by the TAT in January 2024, to reassure foreign visitors with ongoing efforts to raise safety standards in travel.
Thai safety perceptions among Chinese travellers suffered following a fatal shooting incident at popular shopping mall Siam Paragon in October 2023, as well as documentaries showcasing human trafficking scams in South-east Asia.
Sienna Parulis-Cook, director of marketing and communications at DTI, emphasised the impact of strategic communication campaigns on safety perceptions.
“Last year, the TAT regularly published statements about safety on its Weibo and WeChat channels, which received a lot of attention at the time,” she shared.
Meng further elaborated on the broader trend observed in the report, stating that over the past year, most destinations surveyed have seen improved safety ratings among Chinese travellers.
Among 20 destinations assessed, 10 have improved safety ratings – barring Italy and Japan, the latter likely impacted by the Chinese ban on Japanese seafood post-Fukushima nuclear waste water release incident.
“This could also explain softening interest in North-east Asia, with Japan previously the top choice for Chinese travellers in this region,” reflected Meng.
Key destinations like Hong Kong and Singapore maintain their status as the safest choices, followed by Switzerland, the UK, France, Australia, and Canada. The US has also witnessed notable safety perception improvements post-pandemic.
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She has over 19 years of experience as a director of sales and marketing, and was part of the team to relaunch and rebrand the renovated Mandarin Oriental Singapore.
The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) is stepping up efforts to expand gastronomy tourism in a bid to combat overtourism, cater to the high-end market and boost inbound tourism consumption in rural areas.
JTA will provide financial subsidies in fiscal 2024 (April 2024 to March 2025) for the development and promotion of programmes focusing on regional culinary cultures.
The Japanese government considers food and drink an industry with high potential for growth given that inbound visitors spent 1.2 trillion yen (US$7.8 billion), on food and drink in 2023, equating to almost one quarter of their total consumption, according to JTA.
Support includes up to 50 million yen per successful applicant to cover the establishment of bases for collecting ingredients, such as wild plants, and for carrying out local cultural experiences. Advertising, meanwhile, can be carried out overseas, such as on travel websites.
As part of the plan, luxury packages that combine culinary and cultural experiences will also be developed to expand options for “high-value travellers,” categorised by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) as those who spend one million yen or more per visit to Japan.
Among the regions that could benefit from the subsidies is Nara Prefecture, which trialled six gastronomy tours from October 2023 to January 2024 with support from JTA as part of a project designed to attract 51 million tourists annually by 2025. The tours introduce Nara as the heartland of sake and matcha, as well as the prefecture that produces the most persimmons.
“The bounty of the nation’s mountains, valleys, rivers and seas differs from region to region, giving tourists myriad opportunities to get to the heart of Japan through their stomachs,” said a JNTO representative. “That’s the essence of gastronomy tourism, a form of travel focused on food nurtured by local ingredients, customs and traditions.”