“The recovery of tourism in Thailand is under threat due to the shockingly high cost of flying to the kingdom from Europe and America,” – such a frightening statement was published by the local media. Thai travel agencies assure that the increase in the price of air transportation is the main reason that tour packages in Europe are rapidly increasing in price, and they already cost twice as much as in the “pre-war” times. In such conditions, as experts assure us, you can only count on the luxury market of tourists or local tourism from neighboring countries, and you can forget about mass tourists from Europe.
Prmyitka: At the same time, the day before DIP wrote that the largest airline in Europe refused to resume flights to Thailand – details here.
“Packages are rising in price, mainly due to expensive airfares, driven by higher fuel costs around the world and higher operating costs. Long-haul flights, such as flights from the US and Europe, suffer the most from high fuel costs, as well as labor shortages,” Thai experts say. They give the following example – tour packages for Scandinavian countries start from 150-170 thousand Thai baht ($4 – 4.6 thousand). According to their estimates, this is twice as much as in pre-2019, and only 3% of potential tourists can afford it.
Similarly, by 2019, “some” flight ticket prices have also doubled. “Travel agents, who collect tour packages, find an increase in operating costs in all directions. Therefore, they have to move to the “luxury” market, whose tourists can afford a sharp increase in travel prices. But not everyone can offer individual high-quality packages and exclusive travel options,” Thai experts say.
The second way to save tourism is to count on the regional sector or nearby countries – they have risen in price by an average of 1000-2000 baht per tourist. “Packages for travel to Southeast Asia are about 8 times cheaper than Scandinavian packages by an average of 20,000 baht,” experts note. This is short-haul tourism to Thailand from neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia, where travel may still be affordable.
At the moment, Thai media also note, that only about 50% of flights to and from Thailand have been restored. Moreover, the frequency of these flights is still below 30%.