Even as Thailand pushes ahead with its casino legislation, its Prime Minister is to personally delivery assurances to China’s President about the safety of tourists from the nation’s largest tourism source market.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is reportedly going to make an official visit to China in February and plans to bring up tourism safety with Xi Jinping.
The assurances aim to assuage concerns, following the recent disappearance and safe return of Chinese actor Wang Xing. The actor had gone missing along the Thai-Myanmar border in early January, with authorities believing he may have been a victim of human trafficking.
While tourism officials have already communicated directly with Chinese officials about Thailand’s efforts to rebuild confidence from Chinese tourists, the top-level encounter should further solidify the message.
Thailand is hoping to attract some 9 million Chinese visitors this year, a 35 percent yearly increase.
Tourism and Sports Minister Sowarong Thienthong, as cited by the Bangkok Post, indicated that tourism arrivals from China had actually to 22,000 daily (up until January 20th), this year, from an average of 17,000.
China has been the top tourism source market for the country so far this year, with over 354,000 arrivals. This has been supported by a permanent visa-free agreement between China and Thailand.
The official indicated that cancellations were largely from first-time tour group visitors, after the incident, and that there had been “no impacts on tourists who were free independent travelers”.
Thailand is now working to improve border security, as China has also reached out to ASEAN nations to increase their crackdowns on scam operations in their respective countries – especially those operating across borders.
Thailand aims to attract a total of 40 million visitors this year and tourism revenue of THB3 trillion ($29.56 billion).
