As Thailand looks to welcome 35 million international tourist arrivals in 2024, the two Asian giants China and India are expected to play a critical role in meeting the target. Initial signs seem promising, with Chinese travellers already surpassing the one million mark between January 1 and February 19.
“It is for the first time after the pandemic that we have welcomed more than one million Chinese travellers within the first two months of a year. Factors like Chinese New Year, visa exemption, joint promotions with travel agents, and MoUs with OTAs are resulting in (strong) demand from China’s outbound market. We expect China to be our number one source market in 2024 with eight million tourist arrivals,” Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) told TTG Asia on the sidelines of a press conference in New Delhi on February 21.
A visa-free travel scheme for Chinese tourists entering Thailand was launched in September 2023, and has now become a permanent arrangement.
Last year, China occupied the second spot among top five tourism markets for Thailand with 3.5 million travellers.
India, with 1.6 million tourist arrivals, occupied the fourth position, while the US was Thailand’s leading source market with 4.6 million tourist arrivals.
India is priority too, and the TAT is aiming for two million arrivals in 2024.
Thapanee elaborated: “India is a high quality and high spending market for us, and that’s the reason we introduced a visa exemption for Indian travellers last year. We are at present evaluating if we could also extend a visa-free facility permanently to Indian travellers.”
Indian travellers can now avail visa-free travel to Thailand from November 10 to May 10 with a stay of up to 30 days.
In order to spur demand from India, TAT is planning to focus on new segments like senior citizens and women travellers, and to promote rejuvenating tours and adventure sports to Indian travellers.
There are intentions to also highlight new products and destinations, such as the UNESCO sites in Nakhon Ratchasima; Thann Wellness in Ayutthaya; Mon Bridge and Pilok Village in Kanchanaburi; local vineyards; and Khao Yai National Park.
Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol, minister of tourism and sports, Thailand told the media that work is going on to further improve direct connectivity between the two countries. Starting April 2, Thai Airways is launching a new route in India – Bangkok-Kochi with three flights per week.
TransNusa Airline, a subsidiary of Linkasia Airlines Group and Panca Global International Indonesia, has rebranded itself as a Premium Service Carrier globally.
Established in 2005. TranNusa stopped operations in 2020 due to the global pandemic and was sold. In 2022, the airline saw the injection of new shareholders – Panca Global International Indonesia (51 per cent) and Singapore-based Linkasia Airlines Group (49 per cent) – and a new management team, which developed a unique business model that allowed TransNusa to rebrand itself as a Premium Service Carrier.
TransNusa Group CEO Bernard Francis remarked that TransNusa has become the fastest growing airline in South-east Asia due to the business plan that was developed and implemented swiftly post Covid-19.
“We knew that traveller’s behavioural pattern had changed, specifically due to the pandemic. Our next step was to develop a customised business model for the targeted passengers,” he said, adding that the airline has flown over one million passengers between October 2022 and December 2023.
In April last year, TransNusa expanded its reach from domestic to international with the launch of its Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur route. Subsequently in the same year, the airline also launched three new routes – Jakarta-Singapore, Jakarta-Guangzhou, and Jakarta-Johor.
Francis, an aviation industry expert who specialises in airline turnaround and revenue management, said that TransNusa has increased its flight frequencies to seven times a week to Singapore, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China and Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The airline has also increased its flight frequencies to 21 times weekly to Kuala Lumpur, 14 times weekly to Yogyakarta and 35 times weekly to Bali.
“Last year, we expanded our operations to include international routes and even became the second Indonesian airline to fly into China. We also managed to obtain all necessary approvals in a short timeframe from world-class Changi airport, reflecting the strong commitment we have towards safety, security, maintenance and aircraft performance measures,” he said.
On the airline’s future expansion, Francis shared that the airline has plans to further expand its international network, as well as to establish another domestic hub and provide its domestic market with premium services.
He stressed that TransNusa’s current services exceeded that of a low-cost airline.
“For our domestic and international flights, we not only provide premium services with competitive ticket prices in comparison to other low-cost airlines, but we have attractive new product bundles called Seat, Seat-Plus and Flexi-Pro,” he explained.
Depending on the product purchased, passengers can enjoy check-in baggage weighing between 15kg and 30kg. Flexi-Pro features include checking in baggage of up to 30kg, seat choices, free F&B, priority check-in and boarding, as well as the flexibility to change the flight schedule and receive refunds if needed.
In addition, all TransNusa flights will only depart and arrive at major international airports, allowing passengers to enjoy the world-class services offered at these international terminals.