Thailand Shares Reopening with Chinese Travel Trade

From July 2021, Thailand has reopened its borders to tourists in stages, starting with the Phuket Sandbox Plan, followed by Samui Plus from 1 October, and a full reopening to vaccinated visitors from selected countries – including China – from 1 November. Throughout this period, the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) Chengdu Office has used Dragon Trail’s CTA Live platform to regularly update the Chinese travel trade on the details of these policies and options for tourism in Thailand, through a series of three live webinars conducted via WeChat mini-program.

The detailed content of the webinars is important not just because the travel industry could use it immediately to communicate the latest entry requirements and procedures to their clients, but also because the policies and preparations by TAT demonstrate what Thailand is doing to ensure that travel reopens safely. Looking to the future when Chinese outbound tourism returns, this always safety-conscious market is certain to take measures like these into account when choosing a destination.

The webinars introduced the Chinese travel trade to the latest policies, pre-departure requirements, entry procedures, and health and safety regulations in Thailand

On this note, the webinars introduced the Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA) – established to facilitate the recovery and safety of tourism in Thailand, with a certification program for restaurants, hotels, recreation activities, transport, attractions, and other related businesses. Webinar viewers also learned that more than 70% of workers in Thailand’s tourism sector had been vaccinated. With updates in each webinar, viewers were fully informed on all pre-departure requirements, how to get the QR code needed for entry into Thailand, and what to expect on arrival. This makes the process easier to understand, thus ensuring a smooth journey, while also showing that Thailand is regulating tourism and doing the maximum to safeguard the health and safety of visitors.

The webinar series started with the Phuket Sandbox Webinar on 13 August to introduce the travel scheme that allowed entry to Phuket for fully vaccinated travelers. The two-hour webinar included presentations from Thailand and China, with speakers from the Royal Thai Consulates General in Chengdu and Xi’an, the Phuket Tourist Association, the Phuket Hotels Association, Sichuan Airlines, the Sichuan Travel Agency Association, and TAT’s Chengdu Office.

With a policy similar the Phuket Sandbox, the Samui Plus plan opened another popular Thai island to tourism from 1 October. The 10 September Samui Plus Webinar featured speakers from TAT Chengdu, the Royal Thai Consulate General – Chengdu, and Bangkok Airways, which was the designated operator for Bangkok to Samui flights under the Samui Plus program.

Following the country’s full reopening to vaccinated travelers, the 5 November Unlock Thailand Webinar included speeches by TAT officials, followed by presentations by partners: Receptive tour operator the Silver Hawk Group, Conrad Koh Samui, Anantara Chiang Mai Resort, and Siam Wellness Group.

The three webinars brought together speakers from Thailand and China, for presentations and live Q&A sessions

The webinars attracted more than 900 participants from throughout China – from north to south, and from coastal areas to inland Sichuan and Chongqing. The audience included travel industry retailers, wholesalers, customized travel advisors, MICE specialists, OTAs, and tour operators, as well as media.

Webinar presentations were followed by a live Q&A with the audience to answer questions about policies and bookings, and audience interaction was high, with more than 1,360 comments during the live streams. To boost engagement and attract participants, all webinars included live quizzes where the audience answered questions based on the presentations they had just seen, for a chance to win prizes from TAT, JD.com vouchers and more.

In addition to hosting the webinars through our CTA Live WeChat-based webinar platform, Dragon Trail also provided video effects; assisted with production, Q&A, and audience interaction during the live broadcast; organized pre-event technical testing and rehearsals; and designed promotional posters and publicized the webinars to the Chinese travel trade via WeChat.

“Throughout the three webinars, Dragon Trail provided professional technology services and guaranteed smooth online communication for speakers in various cities between China and Thailand. With the networking expertise of Dragon Trail in the Chinese tourism industry, we are satisfied with this collaboration where digital meets traditional B2B partnerships. We definitely look forward to exploring more tech-products and options in the future,” said Mrs. Kanokkittika Kritwutikon, Director of the TAT’s Chengdu Office.

Please click here to learn more about Dragon Trail’s B2B marketing solutions, and contact us directly to speak about how we can help your destination or business stay top of mind with the Chinese travel trade.