According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, throughout 2019, Thai tourists took over 171 million trips, domestically and internationally. This generated over THB 11 billion of revenue – an increase of 3% from 2018. Supported by subsidies from the government, a stronger Thai baht and more affordable airfares, Thais tended to travel and spend more while travelling. However in 2020, everything stands still, as the world is now fighting COVID-19. It is inevitable that travel will no longer be the same but I believe that the general travel trend will still remain on a similar trajectory. Let’s have a look at when, where and how we – Thai travellers – have always been travelling during the past years.

Some people prefer travelling solo but the majority of us will travel in a group such as with friends, within a couple, or family. With whom an individual would travel may depend on what stage of life they’re at. During my childhood, my family always drove down from Chiang Mai to Hua Hin, a seaside holiday destination. If we didn’t have a van, we would need to drive 2 cars because our grandparents also joined our trip, usually containing at least 7 members. Then we joined an army of other families who also liked to spend time with their grandparents and their children during the school holidays. In my university days, I preferred getting away with a group of friends somewhere nearby within the country. Meanwhile, our parents would take this opportunity to reunite with their old friends by joining a guided tour overseas or within Thailand.

The majority of us travel domestically because of a few reasons. Firstly, we would take this opportunity to go back home and visit our family. Secondly, travel in Thailand is much more affordable than going overseas. Third, getting a visa to enter countries in Europe, for example, is such a daunting task and expensive. To apply for a tourist visa, we must provide documentation and attend the interviews to prove your travel intent and financial status. Therefore, to many of us, travelling overseas is sometimes viewed as a luxury reserved only for the richest. So where do we travel to the most? Domestically, apart from visiting family, our top destinations are Pattaya, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai. Lured by their beautiful beaches, food and fun activities, Pattaya and Hua Hin are within an easy reach by car from Bangkok. There are also many cheap direct flights to Chiang Mai where it is now the epicenter of a rising coffee culture as well as the beauty of nature the city is always known for. For international travel, East Asia has always been the favourite including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (accounting for almost 80% of all international travels). With easy access, unique cultures, famous attractions and shopping opportunities, some travel to these destinations multiple times per year. Europe ranks second, with the UK, Germany and France the top 3 countries where Thais visited the most.

We usually plan our travel around long weekends and public holidays. This is because it’s quite unusual for us who have 9–5 jobs to take long leave during the year. Therefore long weekends and national public holidays are the only opportunities for us to get away. During the year, Q1 and Q4 are the high seasons as we have the Songkran festival in April and New Year’s Eve. The holidays would last up to one week. That means hotels and airfares are more expensive than the rest of the year. In the middle of the year, it is Thailand’s monsoon and rainy season, thus not the best time to travel and it's also a good time to save up for longer trips at the end of the year.

As families are tight-knitted, most of us who work far away from home (mostly Bangkok) will take this opportunity to reunite with their family and friends. For example, during the Songkran holiday or Thailand's new year, families will gather and celebrate the festival together in the hot summer heat. There are also growing new travel trends that are niche to certain groups of interests such as participating in sporting events like football matches or a marathon, hiking, photography workshops and culinary pilgrimages. As Thais are becoming more affluent, these kinds of travels may seem to be too much of an investment for a hobby but there are more and more Thai travellers willing to spend their hard-earned money for their passions.

Of course, no travel would be complete for Thais without eating out and shopping. Food has always been our passion. Throughout the country, even though you are Thai, you will always find something you have never tried before while travelling in the country. When travelling overseas, I often bump into many fellow Thais lining up for famous ramen in Osaka or a Michelin guide dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong.

Many businesses have invested into accommodating Thai travellers, as there are many affluent Thais whose main purpose of their trips is shopping. Due to heavy tax on imported luxury goods imposed by Thai customs, some find that it is more economical to purchase designer branded products from overseas and bring them back into the country as a personal item. Some may purchase for their friends and associates and some may make a decent profit that covers the cost of their trips. I believe that this should be a good enough reason for business to put Thai customers as one of their priority lists.

In the past the majority of travellers chose to travel with a group tour. But nowadays, to the newer generations, travelling that way seems to be old-fashioned. With the abundance of information available on the internet and the language barrier becoming less of an issue, the new generation of travellers tend to plan and organize trips by themselves. Even though there is an abundance of information available on the internet, many of us tend to stick to a traditional medium which is a travel guide book. It is not uncommon to see a large section of travel guidebooks available in almost every bookstore.

The Thai web forum Pantip has been a go-to source of information for everything we need which includes itinerary and hotel reviews and a place for us to post questions and get answers from the community (I often compare Pantip as a Thai Reddit). Facebook is also another source of our travel inspiration. Just like the rest of the world, it’s a place where we’ll see amazing photos taken by travel influencers (who are very influential to our decision making these days) or just some travel-flex photos by our friends.

When arriving at the destination, to get around there are both people who rely only on public transport and car rental. Since Thai driver licenses are not recognised by many countries, before departure we must apply for an international driving license if we wish to travel around by car. For me, I personally prefer public transport as it’s a good chance to see how local people commute and learn more about their daily lives.

In terms of accommodation, most of us book hotels online because of the competitive rates, the ability to compare each hotel easily and wide selections of accommodations to choose from. We are also price sensitive shoppers and like to shop around and read many reviews before making a booking decision. We also utilise the ‘Free cancellation’ option so whenever we find a cheaper price we would cancel the existing booking and make a new booking with a cheaper site.

As travelling overseas needs a longer stay and has a higher booking cost, we tend to choose more economical choices such as 2–3 star hotels or hostels for young travellers. While domestic travel is cheaper, 4–5 star properties are more affordable and they are a popular choice. Accommodation sharing sites such as AirBnB is also a popular alternative because it offers lower cost for people who travel in a group and its fully-fitted with facilities such as a washing machine and kitchen.

Of course, you may find many Thai travellers travel differently from what is described here but I believe this is a good example of the general population from my own experience and tourism authority statistics. We can only hope that one day we will be able to travel freely again and when that day comes I hope this can be a little insight for people in the travel business to make their strategic decisions.