Travel bodies seek the PM's help on China advisory

The request is aimed at boosting the number of Chinese tourists, which have fallen dramatically this year, the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) and the Thai-Chinese Tourism Association (TCTA) said yesterday.

"We asked the PM to talk with his Chinese counterpart to withdraw the warning against visiting Thailand, in order to help revive the tourism industry," said TCTA president Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn.

He said the two associations believed tourism from China would return to normal by the third quarter if the travel advisory were |lifted.

Abhisit and his economic team are scheduled to visit China in mid-June.

ATTA president Surapol Sritrakul said the number of foreign visitors to Thailand was down more than 40 per cent year on year during the first quarter.

The biggest fall-off was in visitors from Japan, down 66 per cent compared to the same period last year, followed by South Korea at 55 per cent, and the United Kingdom at 40 per cent. The number of Chinese visitors was down 30 per cent.

"Many problems, especially the worldwide spread of the H1N1 flu virus, are hurting our tourism industry," Surapol said.

"We calculate we have lost more than 200,000 Chinese visitors due to our political instability alone," Sisdivachr said.

He added that more than 10 hotels and many tour operators focusing on the Chinese market had been forced to close due to the lack of business.

As a result, Thailand's inbound tourism revenue has plunged from Bt500 billion to Bt300 billion this year.

Meanwhile, Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, said the airline planned to open three more routes in China and Taiwan this year.

The first is to Taiwan, which is planned for September, while the other two destinations are still under discussion.

The airline also plans to increase the frequency of flights to popular destinations such as Hong Kong.

The airline is to take delivery |of three Airbus A320s in second |half of the year.

Tassapon said average seat occupancy between January and May was 76 per cent, lower than projected. However, the company hopes load factors will be back to normal by the third and fourth quarters.

"Thai AirAsia is maintaining its projection of 5.2 million passengers and an 80-per-cent load factor for the full year," he said.

Thai AirAsia and Kasikornbank yesterday launched a co-branded credit card - the AirAsia-KBank card - as a marketing tool to stimulate travel in the low season.

Cardholders will get instant privileges of priority booking for the best deals one day ahead of general customers. The airline is aiming to have 100,000 cardholders in the first year and build the total to 300,000 within five years.