Thailand is in the midst of welcoming 12,700 staff from Chinese health product distributor Infinitus for a series of six-night incentives between May 10-26, 2015.
In groups of 2000 to 3000, groups will travel on 110 flights between cities across China and Bangkok, 400 coach trips to and from Pattaya and 36 river cruises. The trip is expected to chalk up around THB600 million (US$18m) in tourism receipts, according to Juthaporn Rerngronasa, acting governor for international marketing of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). The group will occupy around 38,000 hotel rooms during the 17 nights.
“Thailand has become a very popular destination for Chinese travellers as well as a top-of-mind venue for China’s incentive programme in recent years, thanks to our geographical proximity, easy accessibility, high standards of service as well as a wide variety of tourism products and the memorable ‘Thainess’ experience,” she said.
Chinese MICE groups are the top source of visitors to Thailand, with 2014 seeing the arrival of 120,684 Chinese travellers to the region for business events and incentives. After China, Indian travellers are the second largest group to visit Thailand with 83,351 visitors, followed by Malaysia with 69,034.
