Thailand’s tourism goal at risk as Japan lures Chinese tourists

BANGKOK – Thailand’s ambitious goal of attracting up to nine million tourists from China in 2025 is in doubt after the kidnapping of a Chinese actor started driving mainland visitors to the safety of Japan and Singapore.

Flight cancellations to the country that brands itself as the “Land of Smiles” surged 94 per cent in January, according to Bloomberg Intelligence research, as more Chinese opted instead to take their families to the ski fields and hot springs of Japan during Chinese New Year.

Trips to Thailand in the first two weeks of February were still lagging behind the 2024 levels, the note showed.

News of Chinese

actor Wang Xing’s kidnapping to Myanmar

through Thailand and his subsequent rescue prompted a wave of Chinese New Year trip cancellations by mainland travellers.

Tourism-reliant Thailand has since cracked down on scammers and criminal rings that use the country as a transit hub to traffic unwitting victims to work in cyber-scam centres. But so far it has done little to ease travellers’ fears.

“Safety concerns do have enough weight with Chinese tourists to make them think twice about travel to Thailand,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Zhu said.

“Uptake of bad news has been far higher than steps it’s taken to boost safety, which will make its reputation repair a likely uphill battle.”

Flight bookings from China to Japan have, meanwhile, more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, thanks also to the weaker yen and airfares as low as US$150 (S$200) from Shanghai to Tokyo.

That helped Japan overtake Thailand as the top overseas destination for Chinese tourists during the eight-day holiday in 2025.

Visa-free entries to Singapore and Malaysia have also drawn these tourists away from Thailand.

Japan alone attracted a record 980,000 Chinese tourists in January – more than double from 2024, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation.

Meanwhile, Thailand said nearly 711,000 Chinese had visited in 2025 to Feb 2.

Bangkok has

shut power to operators of illicit businesses

in Myanmar, while working with its neighbour to clamp down on the scam centres, from where more than 1,000 foreign workers, including several hundred Chinese, were recently freed. 

Whether the crackdowns will help win back more Chinese tourists, the top source of foreign receipts in Thailand’s tourism industry, remains to be seen.

Tourism, which accounts for about 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and a fifth of total employment, is forecast to bring in an estimated US$55 billion in 2025.

It is unlikely that Thailand will be able to hit the top range of its target for Chinese visitors and will struggle to surpass the 8.8 million it proposes at the lower end if it does not swiftly address safety concerns of Chinese tourists by the end of this quarter, Mr Zhu wrote in the note.

If the problem persists throughout 2025, Thailand may struggle to attract more than 7.5 million Chinese arrivals, he said.

There are some signs that concerns are abating, but it is still too early to call a turnaround in sentiment.

While bookings from China to Thailand for March are still down about 10 per cent week on week, flight demand for April and May are showing growth of more than 3 per cent, according to marketing firm China Trading Desk, which tracks the mainland travel market.

“The fear over travel to Thailand has ebbed,” said China Trading Desk chief executive Subramania Bhatt. “Still, Thailand is way off compared with 2019, while both Malaysia and Singapore have a very strong recovery of Chinese visitors.”

Beyond shutting down scam operations, Thailand’s government and industry need to do more to develop tourism beyond the popular destinations such as capital Bangkok, the beaches of Phuket and the jungles of Chiang Mai, said Thai Hotel Association president Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun.

“Even Thai people love to go to Japan instead of going to Phuket domestically,” he said. “We have lost good quality travellers favouring the currency exchange. We need to do more, offer more destinations to attract visitors.” BLOOMBERG