On Thailand’s Koh Samui, chain hotels look beyond Chinese tourists for a post-pandemic rebound
- On the Thai island of Samui, high-end hotel chains have been expanding to take advantage of pent-up travel demand as the country further eases entry rules
- Thailand’s government is aiming for 10 million international visitors this year, but high-value Chinese tourists are unlikely to be among them for a while yet
So many tourists used to visit Chaweng beach on the Thai island of Samui before the pandemic that “you could not find the seats or the sand”, according to hotelier Patrick Moukarzel.
Hotels like the Centara Reserve Samui, where Moukarzel is general manager, are gearing up to take advantage of the pent-up demand – even though he estimates that visitor numbers to the island where the six-star resort is located are currently only “15 per cent of what they used to be”.
Some bars and shops remain closed on Samui, but as international visitors begin to trickle in, other businesses and people who made their living from tourism before the pandemic have started to return, hoping to cash in on the rebound.
Among them is Pong, a 43-year-old taxi driver who returned to Samui in February after the island began allowing in visitors without quarantine in October under a tourism sandbox programme.
“During Covid I went back to my hometown to work the fields and I also worked as a security guard for a while,” he said. “There are not a lot of tourists in Samui yet but at least it is better because this way I can earn cash everyday.”
Travel requirements
Tourism Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn expects Thailand to welcome between 7-10 million foreign tourists this year – an increase on the 6.9 million that visited in 2020, before the pandemic caused borders to slam shut, but still a fraction of 2019’s 39.9 million. Last year, just 427,000 foreigners visited.
Eased entry rules mean travellers no longer need to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test before travel, but a PCR test is still required on arrival followed by a rapid antigen test on the fifth day. Tourists must also have a health insurance policy providing at least US$20,000 of coverage and register for a QR code under the government’s Thailand Pass scheme.
Ratchakitprakarn has proposed doing away with the Thailand Pass altogether as soon as June and said he expects a full resumption of tourism by 2024.
It is imperative that we learn to live with Covid and fully reopen Thailand and the entire region so that we can properly kick start tourism
But that is not fast enough for some. Bill Heinecke, CEO of hospitality, restaurant and lifestyle company Minor International, told the Thailand Tourism Leadership Summit last month that the country was falling behind.
“If we don’t open up we can’t be competitive. Currently the rules are just too complicated,” he said. “We are not even 10 per cent of where we were pre-Covid and Thailand will not reach its target of 10 million arrivals in 2022.”
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Minor Hotels CEO Dillip Rajakarier expressed more confidence in a tourism rebound, but said “inconsistent travel requirements” across the region were hampering progress.
“It is imperative that we learn to live with Covid and fully reopen Thailand and the entire region so that we can properly kick start tourism again,” he said.
Absent Chinese
Hotels have been able to rely on domestic tourists to keep them going in the meantime, however. Moukarzel said Centara Reserve Samui was filled with local visitors when it reopened in December following a major renovation, but “the bookings in July and August are 95 per cent foreign tourists”.
“There were some Russians during the New Year,” he said. “And tourists from Israel, France, Germany and the UK.”
Centara, a Thai company, operates 88 hotels and resorts globally, but plans to more than double that number by 2026. This year, it is set to open eight new properties in Thailand, Laos, Oman and Qatar, and saw strong performances at its properties in the Middle East and the Maldives amid the pandemic, according to a press release.
Minor Hotels’ Maldives locations did similarly well – experiencing record results “despite the absence of the China market for two years,” CEO Rajakarier said.
“With the relaunch of flights from Saudi Arabia to Thailand over the last month, there is great potential in this market and we are confident that Saudi guests will be keen to travel in the months following Ramadan,” he said.
On Samui, other high-end hotel chains are also expanding. IHG Hotels & Resorts launched the Kimpton Kitalay Samui last year, with a focus on “attracting staycationers and holiday makers from key major hubs of Thailand” while the country’s borders were closed, said Serena Lim, IHG’s vice-president of development for Southeast Asia and Korea.
The Kimpton brand debuted in Thailand in 2020 with the opening of the Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, which Lim said “quickly became a much-loved and popular destination”.
IHG also operates the Six Senses, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands in Thailand, and plans to “double our size within the next five years, and grow our luxury and lifestyle portfolio by 50 per cent”, Lim said.
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“But once borders are open, the purchasing and travelling will exceed previous numbers, especially in the second and third tier cities in China where most have never travelled overseas,” he said. “Thailand is the closest destination they will choose.”
