Kajorndet revealed that several airlines, including Thai Airways and Thai AirAsia X, are likely to open new routes and add more flights in the remaining six months of the year. The airlines are preparing to launch a direct flight to Nagoya.
“TAT is currently negotiating with the airline to reopen a direct flight to Sendai; the service was suspended during the pandemic. Our goal is to quickly restore passenger seat volume on this route to normal,” he said, adding that accelerating tourism promotion in both directions is one of the most important ways to assist.
“Because if there are no Thai people going to Japan, the airlines aren’t happy about opening routes either,” he pointed out.
According to TAT, the number of aeroplane seats available on the Thailand-Japan route has recovered 70% since the pandemic. The majority of passengers were Thai – approximately 60% – and 40% Japanese.
Fortunately, the Japanese still regard Thailand as a “friendly destination”, so Thailand has the opportunity to fully recover next year, with at least 1.1 million people, or a 10% increase from this year, he said. The influx could restore Thailand’s surplus with Japan in terms of arrival numbers.
In 2024, the overall tourism outlook for Thailand and Japan should be more balanced. Although statistics from the first five months show that over 560,000 Thais travelled to Japan, they are expected to decline during the low season in the third quarter. TAT expects 1 million Japanese tourists to visit Thailand this year, exceeding the target of 870,000 people.
The figure represents a more than 50% increase from 2019 before Covid, when there were nearly 1.8 million people, placing Thailand as the sixth most popular market for foreign tourists behind China, Malaysia, India, South Korea, and Lao PDR.
Meanwhile, during the first six months of this year, Japanese were the 10th highest group among foreign tourists visiting Thailand, with a total of 470,000 people, a 10% increase year on year. The average amount spent per person per trip exceeds 60,000 baht. Furthermore, Japanese visitors spend an average of 11 days with a daily expenditure of 5,500 baht per person.
