Thai tourists overlook visiting Korea and turn to visit China instead
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The strict registration of K-ETA (Korea Electronic Travel Authorization) makes it difficult for many Thai tourists who want to travel to South Korea. Some people have already registered in the system and have already passed the but were rejected, making these tourists look for new attractions, which China is also one of the choices.
The popular trend of Thais visiting China overtakes the trend of Thais visiting South Korea
The tourism trend of Thai tourists visiting China has grown dramatically thanks to the government’s policy to support Visas, which makes it easier for Thai people to visit China and package tours in line with Thai purchasing power, mainly in the range of THB20,000-THB30,000 on a four-day, three-night, or five-day and four-night trip.
The vice president of the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA) said that after five months of visas free for Thai and Chinese tourists, it was found that overall sales of “Chinese tour packages” to Thai tourists grew more than 100% over the previous period without free visas measure.
In China, it is a country with a variety of tourist attractions and distributed in almost every city. Popular destinations in 2024 that Thai people like to visit are Zhangjiajie trail, Avatar Valley, Changsha, Jiuzhaigou trail, and Chengdu, Kunming trail, Dali, and Lijiang, as well as the airline market to China that has grown rapidly, making China a strong tourist destination for Thai people.
According to SiteMinder, 83% of Thai tourists plan to travel abroad in 2025, increasing to 87% in the Millennials group, and the dream destinations of Thai tourists are Japan (56%), China (32%), South Korea (23%), Singapore (15%) and Vietnam (14%). Travel preferences vary from generation to generation, such as Gen Z and Millennials prefer hotels and resorts, while Gen X prefer B&B and Baby Boomers prefer hostels, motels, or low-cost hotels.
Will South Korea become a tourist destination for Thais again?
Given the trend of Thai people returning to Korea again, analysts expect that if the Korean government can solve the immigration problem properly, the demand for a trip to South Korea will return.
However, on December 26, the South Korean government announced a plan to revitalize and sustain the tourism sector, but there is no sign of measures to solve the problem of immigration control for Thai tourists. This plan includes visa-free entry for Chinese tourists and, an extension of the period of waiving K-ETA and visa fee waiver for six countries including China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, and India. Although the number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea reached 13.74 million until October this year, the highest since 2019, it has yet to reach its target of 20 million.
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