Hi Michael, do you have any sense of how this might impact Airports of Thailand directly and Thai tourism in general, since the Chinese tourists are bigger spenders than the average Thai tourists?
You make a very good point there, that the spending of Chinese tourists has been way higher than those of most other tourists.
According to my data, the daigou trade was worth around US$50 billion at the peak, roughly 1/5 of the outbound Chinese tourism expenditure of US$250 billion.
Thailand is now open for group as well as individual travellers from China, so there's nothing stopping them from travelling to Thailand. It's plausible that we'll see a full recovery in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand, especially compared to 2019 after the Phuket boat accident had taken place.
But given the daigou crackdown, I personally would not assume a full duty-free spending recovery. At least a portion of the Chinese tourists were probably daigous. I know from my communication with Haw Par Corporation that they used to sell tons of Tiger Balm to Chinese tourists, presumably purchasing agents. So keep that in mind.
Hi Michael, do you have any sense of how this might impact Airports of Thailand directly and Thai tourism in general, since the Chinese tourists are bigger spenders than the average Thai tourists?
You make a very good point there, that the spending of Chinese tourists has been way higher than those of most other tourists.
According to my data, the daigou trade was worth around US$50 billion at the peak, roughly 1/5 of the outbound Chinese tourism expenditure of US$250 billion.
Thailand is now open for group as well as individual travellers from China, so there's nothing stopping them from travelling to Thailand. It's plausible that we'll see a full recovery in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand, especially compared to 2019 after the Phuket boat accident had taken place.
But given the daigou crackdown, I personally would not assume a full duty-free spending recovery. At least a portion of the Chinese tourists were probably daigous. I know from my communication with Haw Par Corporation that they used to sell tons of Tiger Balm to Chinese tourists, presumably purchasing agents. So keep that in mind.
Thanks Michael!