News Forum - Asian international tourism slower than other regions

[Thaiger]

While tourism in Thailand is picking up, Southeast Asia has seen a much slower rate of return for international travellers than other parts of the world. Many popular holiday areas in Europe have seen a full recovery, and even record-breaking numbers in some. But Asia lags, flummoxed by the slow lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. Thailand began reopening efforts over a year ago now, with the first full border reopening on November 1, 2021. In those days, travel was complex and expensive. There were quarantines, the Thailand Pass, and countless Covid tests. It wasn’t until just the beginning of last month […]

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[Soidog]

Air fares are the problem. You can’t increase air fares by 50%+ and expect the same number of takers. That’s not how things work. Air fares from London to Bangkok return were as low as £490 in 2019. The cheapest equivalent flight is now £880, an 80% price increase. Look no further for a reason why tourism isn’t as good and will remain low

[Grumpish]

2 hours ago, Soidog said:

Air fares are the problem. You can’t increase air fares by 50%+ and expect the same number of takers. That’s not how things work. Air fares from London to Bangkok return were as low as £490 in 2019. The cheapest equivalent flight is now £880, an 80% price increase. Look no further for a reason why tourism isn’t as good and will remain low

High air fares, and the region was slow to open up again. Thailand in particular did itself no favours with it's constant on-off change at the drop of a hat policies.

[Marc26]

3 hours ago, Soidog said:

Air fares are the problem. You can’t increase air fares by 50%+ and expect the same number of takers. That’s not how things work. Air fares from London to Bangkok return were as low as £490 in 2019. The cheapest equivalent flight is now £880, an 80% price increase. Look no further for a reason why tourism isn’t as good and will remain low

Our fares were expensive for high season but prices dropped right back to where they been for end of Feb/March

 

And flights were ridiculously low for years, so even a 30% bump or so, should be take into account

Prices do depend on oil.........

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, Marc26 said:

Our fares were expensive for high season but prices dropped right back to where they been for end of Feb/March

And flights were ridiculously low for years, so even a 30% bump or so, should be take into account

Prices do depend on oil.........

They do depend on oil, but I don’t see how they can justify and 80% rise in prices. For tickets in Premium or business the price I’m eases are nearer to 100%+. It’s simply because airlines haven’t increased capacity enough and so demand is outstripping supply. 

[Marc26]

53 minutes ago, Soidog said:

They do depend on oil, but I don’t see how they can justify and 80% rise in prices. For tickets in Premium or business the price I’m eases are nearer to 100%+. It’s simply because airlines haven’t increased capacity enough and so demand is outstripping supply. 

Well yes, but that then dictates price

 

Our route options were cut by 80%

They are all now getting back to normal

 

But prices are obviously one of, if not the main factor, in deciding to fly somewhere

 

Thailand

When I 1st started going 18/19 years ago, they were about 1400cad/rt from NYC

 

They got up to 1600-1700cad/rt about 10 years ago from Vancouver

 

Then got crazy low for last 5 years, 800-900cad/rt

[butterfly]

the ridiculous zero-COVID policy and the silly quarantine just proved what Thailand was capable of, and left a sour taste in many SE Asia travelers, including part time resident and expats

not looking forward to coming back to Thailand, and I have my car and all my stuff still there in Thailand :)

 

[MrNovax]

10 hours ago, Soidog said:

Air fares are the problem. You can’t increase air fares by 50%+ and expect the same number of takers. That’s not how things work. Air fares from London to Bangkok return were as low as £490 in 2019. The cheapest equivalent flight is now £880, an 80% price increase. Look no further for a reason why tourism isn’t as good and will remain low

It said many European countries are experiencing record numbers.  If it was about the airfares you would see a similar decline across the board.  But it has little to do with airfares and everything to do with going overboard with restrictions.   

I fear Thailand along with other countries will not learn this lesson and find scape goats like "high airfares" to alleviate themselves from the poor decisions they made over the last few years.  The best way to make sure you dont make the same mistakes is to admit you made mistakes.  

Edited November 21, 2022 by MrNovax

[cowslip]

Don't think you can put it down to one issue.

I've said before that inflation will reduce the average westerners spending power by around 7% - this will be reflected in how much they spend on holidays - couple this with flight prices and you are beginning to get causes. There is also the effect where people who would normally go long haul decide because or restricted funds to go short haul - this is turn leads to a boost in the short haul market at the expense of destinations like Thailand

On top of this you have a basic misunderstanding of Covid that dominated Thailand's policies and also the Thai government have done little to help tourist businesses recover and did not just block all tourists but seriously damaged the industry itself. 

At present, the Thai government seems conflicted between the dire need for tourist money and a basic underlying Xenophobia which seems to prevent them from making it easier for tourists to come to Thailand.

I remember a few years ago a hotelier on Koh Chang telling me the reason he didn't reduce prices in the wet season was he needed to make MORE money of his guests as there were fewer of them. This underlines the basic Thai urge to ignore market forces which probably stems from the endemic corruption that has run the country for centuries.

Edited November 21, 2022 by cowslip

[Vigo]

Keep in mind that some of Asia's most popular destinations were closed to tourism until a few months ago. The largest hubs still have restrictions. Travel through China and Hong Kong is high risk because of the ongoing COVID  quarantines. Suffer an IROPS and a pax could end up in quarantine. 3 key hubs TPE, NRT and HND are still offering  reduced  flight schedules.  My airfare is similar to what it was  2 years ago once inflation is factored in.  The issue with airfares is that certain airlines  price high most of the time and then have flash sales to clear inventory. Air Canada  and Lufthansa are some of the worst offenders. Air France/KLM have some of the lowest business class airfares to Europe and North America sometimes 40% less than Star Alliance. Qatar was  deep discounting its flights. And for cheap flights there are Royal Jordanian and Turkish. One just has to shop around and forget about  frequent flyer points.

[Soidog]

3 hours ago, MrNovax said:

It said many European countries are experiencing record numbers

Yes, but these are short haul flights  for the vast majority of visitors where price increases are nowhere near the same due to competition from low cost carriers. I can still do Luton to Malaga for £50 return. The same, if not less than 2019.