Bangkok, 16 September 2019 – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Spring International Group today signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to form a long-term strategic partnership to develop and promote quality tourism experiences in the kingdom for visitors from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, said: “This Letter of Intent will pave the way for strategic tourism collaboration efforts between TAT and the Spring International Group with an emphasis on revenue-generating quality tourists. We expect this partnership to help strengthen the position of Thailand as a popular destination for the middle-upper income groups from China.”
Tourism plays a pivotal role in Thailand’s national economic and social development. In 2018, Thailand welcomed more than 38 million visitors from overseas, including 10.8 million from China. Between January and July this year, the kingdom already recorded 6.6 million Chinese visitors, maintaining the importance of China as the number one tourism source market.
Mr. Yuthasak said: “Thailand recognises the long-standing Thai-Chinese relations, and that is why the Thai government recently approved the extension of the visa-on-arrival fee waiver stimulus measure for another six months, or until 30 April 2020.”
Based in Shanghai, Spring International Group is the largest tour operator in China that operates its own airline – Spring Airlines – as well as a range of tourism-related businesses including travel services, hotels, car rentals and duty-free shops. It began promoting Thailand in 2001, focusing on FIT, luxury and educational options. Spring Airlines started scheduled flights to Bangkok in 2012, and now offers connections between 19 cities in China and five in Thailand with 250 flights per week.
Spring International Group and TAT have already cooperated on several tourism projects over the years. This ‘Letter of Intent’ is a result of the November-2018 meeting between Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak and Spring’s top executives.
“Through follow-up discussions with the TAT Governor, we agreed that this Letter of Intent would mark an important step for our mutual tourism cooperation. We will utilise our resources to support this long-term strategic partnership towards sustainable tourism development between the two nations,” said Mr. Wang Yu, Chairman of Spring International Group.
