It’s ‘Golden Week’ in China, which also means a golden opportunity for nearby countries to attract Chinese travellers to their tourist destinations.
This national long holiday, observed during the first week of October, is one of the most important travel periods in China, where a surge in hotel and flight bookings are expected, especially abroad.
What about Thailand? How can Thailand’s tourism sector, which has been heavily reliant on the Chinese market, seize this golden opportunity to regain their confidence?
-Serious decline-
Chinese tourists, which have always been Thailand’s biggest tourist market, have declined in numbers significantly since the beginning of 2025. The abduction of famous Chinese actor, Wang Xing, and the powerful earthquake in Myanmar, which affected several areas of Bangkok, have had a significant impact.
Such news on Chinese social media has scared most Chinese tourists away from Thailand, once known as the land of smiles. This is especially reflected in Thailand's tourism statistics.
Thailand has, so far, welcomed 3.3 million Chinese visitors this year, according to Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Ministry. The number of Chinese tourists in Thailand plunged from over 660,000 in January to only 297,000 in March. The situation seems to have improved slightly in July, when the number of Chinese tourists rebounded to 420,000.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) initially set a high target of 8 million Chinese visitors to Thailand for 2025, but later reduced that to only 4.2 million.
-Negative sentiment-
Adith Chairattananon, Secretary-General of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), expects that the number of Chinese tourists in Thailand during this year’s Golden Week will be much lower than the year before, but slightly better than the first half of this year.
He commented that the warnings against travelling to Thailand on Chinese social media have influenced people’s decisions. On top of that, news stories of call centre scams and the arrests of Chinese individuals opening mule accounts have also fuelled the fear.
Another factor discouraging Chinese travellers is the stronger Thai baht, as it means travelling around Thailand is becoming more expensive. This is probably why most of them have turned to Vietnam, as it is cheaper and much safer. As Adith explains, Vietnam offers a wider variety of tourist destinations, which are much easier to travel to from its main airport.
“Travelling from the main airport to secondary cities in Thailand is still difficult compared to Vietnam,” Adith explains.
“For Vietnam, no matter where you want to go, whether it's Hanoi, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, or Ho Chi Minh City, the distance from its main airport is only 30 minutes. The transportation there is much more convenient. Also, there are more new hotels here and there, including those under international chains, and they are 20-30% cheaper than in Thailand.”
Nevertheless, Adith believes Thailand still has some advantages. After taking part in Thai tourism road shows in China back in July, he learned that some Chinese tour groups, who have travelled to Thailand before, still have better impressions of the country compared to other destinations.
“At least with its food and hospitality, Thailand maintains this standard… So, if we take some time to work on marketing campaigns, to rebuild that trust [from Chinese travellers], I believe that Thailand can regain that tourism status,” he said.
Similarly, Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, President of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), also feels that the negative sentiment from earlier this year is still having an impact. Most of the fear appears to come from those who have never been to Thailand though.
“For people who have already visited Thailand once or more, they are confident,” he said, while adding that many hotels in Chiang Mai were fully booked by Chinese tourists in August, indicating that the sentiment towards Thailand’s safety has somehow improved.
For this reason, Thienprasit still hopes that the numbers during Golden Week will improve, and that the momentum will continue into the high season.
-High expectations-
As for Golden Week, the TAT is aiming at welcoming 200,000 Chinese visitors between September 26th and October 8th, generating tourism revenue of at least 9.1 billion baht. The projected number of visitors is a 24% decrease from the year before.
In fact, the TAT itself has been holding tourism and promotional campaigns to attract Chinese travellers back to Thailand during the past year.
One such campaign includes the use of Chinese online influencers to offer reassurances that Thailand remains a safe travel destination. It also launched its brand-new campaign, known as “Nihao month”, to attract more Chinese tourists until the end of the year, including shopping incentives for Chinese passport holders. This includes increasing charter flights from China to Thailand.
This won’t be enough though…
“The negative sentiment on Chinese social media is still worrying, so this will take time,” Adith explains. “As our safety perceptions have not returned to normal levels, and now we have rivals, on top of the stronger Thai baht, [rebuilding that trust] will take a lot of effort.”
To revive travellers' confidence that Thailand is safe, strict law enforcement should be the highest priority - especially in tackling call centre scams.
“Make other countries, especially China, believe that Thailand has law enforcement that protects tourists,” said Thienprasit. “You cannot just say that we are safe and then tourists will come. We need to show them that we're seriously taking care of that concern.”
If Thailand still wants to rely on Chinese tourists, Thienprasit emphasised safety in hotels, not just CCTV cameras in and around the premises, but also safe payment systems. Tourist information must also be available in both (Mandarin) Chinese and English, especially in budget hotels.
Adith has also outlined some measures to rebuild trust. Among them is to strengthen government-to-government relations between Thailand and China and promoting safety measures in Thailand for Chinese tourists through state media and online influencers.
He also suggests the Thai government should speed up efforts in tackling scams, drug-related crimes, and hiking of taxi prices, as these issues are mostly related to safety concerns.
“Most importantly, Thai people must be a good host, create reasons to smile and show tourists how we’re taking good care of them. I think most airport staff are doing a great job on this, but what is most important is that we have to build that trust among Chinese tourists, so that when they come to Thailand they spread that word-of-mouth,” Adith concluded.
