Late last month, after a period of more than two years, some good news arrived at last for Thai tourists, after the main Asian outbound markets -- Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan -- announced the full reopening of their borders.
Japan announced the launch of visa-free entry for travellers from eligible countries, including Thailand, as well as removing the package tour requirement, effective as of today.
Hong Kong scrapped mandatory quarantine for arrivals on Sept 26, ending one of the world's most severe quarantine measures after a period of almost three years.
Taiwan is set to reopen on Oct 13, when it will require self monitoring for a period of seven days instead of the existing three-day quarantine requirement.
Following these positive signals, travel agents are hopeful of tourism rebounding in the final quarter.
"Many countries want to open their borders since export products are not in good shape, leaving only tourism as the possible choice," said Chotechuang Soorangura, vice-president of the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA).
Mr Chotechuang said Japan will definitely emerge as the top market for Thai outbound tourism due to pent-up demand as seen from the doubling in airfares since Japan's announcement.
He described most Thai tourists as "repeaters", who are drawn to Japan's sense of nature.
Those tourists would like to explore secondary cities and new routes, not only major cities like Tokyo and Osaka.
Given the fact that Japan has closed its borders for almost three years, he expected Thai tourists to visit those major cities again after the long hiatus.
With soaring airfares, tourists tend to stay longer than before Covid-19 to make their trips worthwhile, Mr Chotechuang said.
However, he voiced concern both about preparedness on the government side and external factors such as the lack of seat capacity and expensive airfares.
Mr Chotechuang, who joined a familiarisation trip to Japan with agents from Thailand last week, shared his fresh experience that duty free shops in airports closed early while stores ran out of stock.
Some shops have yet to resume tax-free services as seen before the pandemic, and most of them faced a shortage of English-speaking employees.
Mr Chotechuang said he estimated it would take at least until November to see an improvement.
Likewise, even though the TTAA earlier expected the number of Thai outbound tourists to Japan to reach 300,000 in the fourth quarter, he said it will be a difficult to meet the goal because seat capacity remained less than half of that in 2019.
"The first batch of travellers who will go to Japan will be those at the top of the pyramid in terms of spending, which means there's only a small fraction," said Mr Chotechuang.
"They can afford to stay longer, not just five or six days."
Many airlines have been working towards increasing flights between Thailand and Japan to catch up with higher demand.
Thai AirAsia will open a new route from Don Mueang airport to Fukuoka, starting tomorrow.
"This route has received good feedback, particularly an inaugural flight that recorded more than 90% load factor," said Santisuk Klongchaiya, chief executive of Thai AirAsia.
He said bookings are constantly building up until the beginning of next year.
The market in October and November is mostly driven by the autumn season which is the favourite time for Thais to travel.
