On January 28, 2015, CNTA Vice Chairman Du Yili visited the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) during his stay in this country and held discussions with TAT’s Deputy Governor for Policy and Planning Santi Chudintra, Head of TAT’s East Asia Department Li Bin , and other persons.

 

In the meeting, Mr. Du said that, Thailand is the one of the earliest countries opening to Chinese tourists and in recent years, the number of Chinese visitors to Thailand is on the rapid rise. This country has grown into the 2nd largest destination for the outbound Chinese tourists. In 2014, about 4.42 Chinese people went to Thailand for travelling and around 600,000 Thai people visited China. CNTA attaches high importance to its tourism cooperation with Thailand and pays close attention to the development of the Thai tourism market. Besides, it also hopes the two country’s tourism authorities can work together so as to maintain market order, guide tourists to travel in a civilized manner, and create sound environment for the bilateral tourism exchanges. In the meeting, Mr. Santi said that China is Thailand’s most important source of inbound tourists and he thanked China for its great support in such fields as development of tourism market. Then Head of TAT’s East Asia Department Li Bin introduced the efforts Thailand has made to ban the practice of zero- or negative-fare tours and guide tourists to travel in a civilized manner. 

 

During his stay in Thailand, Mr. Du also held meetings and discussions with the persons in charge of the Thai Tourism Association, Thai Sightseeing Association, and other relevant organisations as well as the representatives form the companies concerned. He also listened to the feedback and suggestions about how the Tourism Law of the People’s Republic of China has been implemented from the Thai tourism circle. In response, Mr. Du said that the Tourism Law is an important act the Chinese government has promulgated to promote the development of tourism and the tourism companies of both China and Thailand are expected to protect visitors’ interests and rights and ensure the sound growth of tourism market with concrete efforts and according to laws. In the meantime, he hoped that Chinese and Thai tourism organisations could push forward their exchanges, communicate about the problems detected in the markets in a timely manner, and give more recommendations for the development and cooperation of the two countries’ tourism.