Chinese Tourists Bypass Bangkok

Chinese vacationers taking advantage of the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday to go abroad are avoiding the Thai capital and neighboring cities amid mounting political instability.

It is concerning for Thailand’s tourism industry, which accounts for 7% of national output, as China has become the biggest source of foreign visitors to the country. They’re also some of the most generous shoppers during their holidays.

Chinese package-tour bookings to Bangkok and the neighboring beach resort of Pattaya in the coming Lunar New Year break have fallen by 90% compared with the previous year, said Davidstone Sek, a director at Bangkok-based tour-group operator CCT Express Co., which specializes in serving Chinese tour groups.

“If the political crisis continues into April when tourists are supposed to come celebrate the Water Festival, another peak season for tourists, it will have an even bigger impact on the tourism industry,” said Mr. Sek, noting that occupancy rates at many of the company’s partner hotels in Bangkok are at just 20%-30%.

The break, which officially kicks off Friday, is to the Chinese what Christmas is to Westerners: the busiest travel season of the year and a time to see family or vacation. Estimates point to some 225 million travelers visiting families or going on holidays during the Lunar New Year, up 11% from a year earlier.

Overseas travel by Chinese citizens has seen robust growth on the back of a stronger currency, and Thailand has been a major hot spot given the nation’s relative proximity to China and an abundance of shopping options. Thailand and South Korea were the two biggest international destinations for Chinese visitors in 2013′s Lunar New Year holiday, surpassing Japan amid territorial tensions between the two nations.

China has since 2012 replaced Malaysia as Thailand’s biggest source of international tourists, with about 4.7 million visitors in 2013, up 69% from a year earlier. They accounted for 18% of the 26.7 million tourists the nation welcomed last year, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

But heightened political tensions, with demonstrations in Bangkok’s busy streets turning violent, threaten to disrupt the flow of Chinese tourist spending this year. Mr. Sek said Chinese tourists spend the most of all visitors on shopping, forking out on average between 5,000 Chinese yuan (US$826) and 8,000 yuan each a day during their visits.

Spring Airlines Co., China’s biggest budget-carrier, said it has cut two of its three daily flights operating between its hub in Shanghai and Bangkok because of reduced travel demand.

“There are plenty of cancellations,” said Zhang Wuan, a spokesman at Spring Air, who declined to elaborate on the numbers. “Travelers are rescheduling their planned holidays elsewhere, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong,” he added.

State carrier China Eastern Airlines Corp. said it had originally planned to mount extra holiday flights to Bangkok to meet demand from tourists, but decided to cancel all the additional services because of uncertainties and booking cancellations.

“Overall demand for outbound travel from China remains positive and so we have reallocated available capacity onto other routes,” said Zeng Yongchao, an executive vice president at the Shanghai-based airline.

The fall in Chinese visitors to Bangkok mirrors weaker visitor demand from other Asian countries. Singapore Airlines Ltd. said earlier it cut 19 flights on the Singapore-Bangkok route between Jan. 14 and Feb. 25, while Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said it would cancel flights to Bangkok as needed to align with demand.

In China, outbound travel accounts for about 4% of total travelers during Lunar New Year, and analysts expect the share to grow further as more affluent Chinese prefer to vacation abroad.

Yang Jinsong, associate researcher at China Tourism Academy, a research arm of the China National Tourism Administration, expects the number of Chinese outbound tourists to reach 8.5 million for this year’s Lunar New Year break, up 13% from the 7.5 million travelers the previous year.

Still, Chinese travel agencies say Thailand remains an important holiday destination. Nasdaq-listed Ctrip.com International Ltd., one of China’s biggest online travel websites, said many visitors to Thailand are opting to bypass Bangkok to visit other cities and resorts.

Mr. Sek at CCT Express said tour group bookings to the island resort of Phuket are down just 10%-20% from last year’s holiday, with individual visitors down by 10%. He said he expects occupancy rates at Phuket hotels to stay at around 90% during the Lunar New Year period.

Chinese Tourists Bypass Bangkok