BANGKOK – Thailand plans to tap Chinese social-media influencers and companies such as Huawei Technologies and Alipay to promote the country as a tourist haven, in an effort to more than double the number of travellers from its largest source of visitors before the pandemic.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand will invite creators on ByteDance’s Douyin platform to produce travel content and invite media and travel agents to tour the country to attract prospective travellers, Mr Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, a deputy governor, said at a briefing in Bangkok.

Attracting Chinese travellers is the key to tourism-reliant Thailand’s ambitious target of drawing 40 million visitors in 2024 and generating 3.1 trillion baht (S$117 billion) in revenue.

The country – popular for its nightlife and beaches – aims to more than double its tally of Chinese visitors to 8.2 million in 2024 from about 3.5 million in 2023, Mr Chattan said.

While a visa waiver unveiled in September for Chinese nationals helped bolster arrivals during the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, the killing in October of a Chinese tourist in a shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall dented confidence, according to Thai officials.

Most Chinese travellers headed to Hong Kong and Macau in the first half of 2023, with Japan and Vietnam also remaining popular, Mr Chattan said.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand on Nov 23 signed an agreement with Fliggy, a popular Chinese travel platform owned by the Alibaba Group, to jointly promote the country as safe to visit. It will also roll out promotions with Huawei, Meituan, Spring Airlines and Sina News, Mr Chattan said.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has identified tourism as a “quick win” to accelerate the nation’s economic growth, with the sector accounting for about 12 per cent of gross domestic product and nearly a fifth of jobs.

The government has also temporarily waived visas for travellers from Russia, Kazakhstan, India and Taiwan, and ordered airlines to add more routes while streamlining airport operations to reduce waiting times for visitors.

Arrivals of Chinese nationals are set to increase in 2024 as airlines add more flights and domestic economic conditions improve, Mr Chattan said, adding that travellers were also expected to stay longer and spend more.

The Chinese were already Thailand’s largest group of tourists before the pandemic. They accounted for more than a quarter of the 40 million visitors in 2019 but have tallied only about three million so far in 2023. BLOOMBERG