Modern Milestone Missions show 77% of Thai travellers believe they don’t need a reason to book a trip, with new motivations including job promotions (24%), tax refunds (14%), and breakup closures (15%).
Booking.com also identified 10 destinations experiencing the strongest growth in interest amongst its most popular locations.
These include Munich in Vietnam, Bilbao in Spain, Barranquilla in Colombia, Philadelphia in the United States, Guangzhou in China, Sal in Cape Verde, Manaus in Brazil, Münster in Germany, Kochi in India, and Port Douglas in Australia.
However, Aruljothi was keen to clarify that Bangkok remains amongst the world’s top five most-desired cities.
“Bangkok, for example, remains one of our top five cities,” he said. “Bangkok always remains within the top five. Thailand is a second home to all of its tourists. Nobody comes to Thailand only once. Everybody continues to come back.”
Aruljothi expressed confidence in the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s recent marketing initiatives, particularly the appointment of Lisa from Blackpink as a campaign ambassador.
“I think the biggest changes, of course, is bringing Lisa on board. I think that’s a really a game changer, really opening up Thailand to a whole new audience, a younger audience, a fresher audience, maybe even the people who haven’t necessarily travelled into Thailand before,” he said.
Booking.com is working closely with TAT to promote Thailand on its platform.
“There’s still a lot of plans in the pipeline from what I understand with their goal to bring in more valuable travellers into Thailand and we are very confident that it’s going to be successful,” Aruljothi added.
On sustainability, Aruljothi noted that whilst environmental concerns remain important to travellers, they have become baseline expectations rather than differentiating factors.
“People already have that as an expectation — the basics, right? Power-saving lamps, reusing of linen, saving water,” he said.
Despite economic challenges globally, the report found travel remains travellers’ top priority for discretionary spending, ranking above fashion and vehicles.
Booking.com is currently rolling out new features including an AI assistant, already available in Singapore and Australia, which helps travellers navigate safety concerns and cultural differences. The Thai-language version is planned for future release.