More Koreans visit Thailand

 Kasikorn Research Centre says South Korean travellers will make 1.4 million trips to Thailand this year spending an estimated Bt50 billion in the country.

Following China, Malaysia, Japan and Russia, South Korea was Thailand’s fifth largest inbound tourist market in 2012 with arrivals reaching 1.17 million, or a 8% share of South Korea’s overall outbound market that stands at 13.74 million trips annually according to Korea Tourism Organisation.

Most of South Korea’s tourists who visited Thailand, last year, were general tour group travellers, but there were also a strong showing of independent travellers mainly golfers, honeymooners and shoppers. The latter tourist categories have a higher spending power than tour groups.

Around 85% of Korean newlyweds, or 260,000 couples, preferred to go overseas for their honeymoons. Beach resorts were the top option led by Bali in Indonesia, Maldives, Phuket, Krabi and Samui Island in Thailand.

In addition, South Korean golfers represented  a strong market with Thailand attracting 50% of the golf market estimated at an overall 1 million trips. Currently, Korean golfers are travelling as far as Chiang Mai to try new courses, but Bangkok and the central and the eastern seaboard’s golf courses are the most popular.

Key factors encouraging more visits include the growth in low-cost airline travel and the increase in flights from South Korea’s major cities (Incheon, Pusan and Daegu) to various popular destinations in Thailand, including Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket.

In January, there were 133,000 trips, up 32.3%. Based on positive trends, it is likely the market will grow 20% to 1.4 million visits and generate Bt50 billion in tourism revenues, up 25% over Bt40 billion in 2012.

Kasikorn Research Centre is a subsidiary company of Kasikorn Bank, which conducts tourism and business research mainly on Thailand’s economy including tourism with reliable recommendations and indicators on business prospects.

Sourced: ttrweekly