What keeps tourists coming to Thailand now?
What keeps tourists coming to Thailand now?
Hint: It seems to be a combination of breast implants and charter flights
Keeping low-cost airlines out, in addition to promoting nips and tucks, seems to be paying off for Thailand tourism lately.
In a report by hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks, Koh Samui’s airport received a 62 percent and 147 percent rise in non-scheduled and charter flights, respectively, last year.
Samui Airport, managed by the boutique carrier Bangkok Airways, recorded 1,024,373 passenger arrivals in 2015, a 7 percent growth.
For perspective, the number of non-scheduled flights to the public airport in Phuket, Thailand’s largest island, dwindled by 10 percent over the same period.
Clearly, this has boded well for Koh Samui’s hotel market. Branded hotels saw their revenue per available room grow by 7 percent from 2010 through 2015, the report showed.
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Fourteen new Koh Samui properties are in the pipeline over the next three years, including a Ritz-Carlton in the Plai Laem area in 2017.
On the upside, Phuket’s relatively more open skies are ensuring that medical tourists are flocking more than ever to its beaches.
Most mix beauty with leisure. Around 48 percent of medical tourists in Phuket are seeking cosmetic surgical procedures such as liposuction and body contouring, according to another report by C9 Hotelworks.
Led by Australian and Chinese mainlanders, medical tourists in Phuket spend THB150,000 (USD4,200) on average for cosmetic procedures. Breast augmentation alone attracted more than 15,000 tourists in the last five years.
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Many Australians arrive via medical tour agencies that offer packages inclusive of transportation and hotel accommodation. On average, a medical tourist tends to stay for up to 12 days in Phuket.
In response to demand, the Phuket International Hospital has recently expanded into a new wing that caters to medical tourists.
“Existing medical demand reveals high investment potential which is drawing more domestic and international groups into commercial projects such as large-scale expansions and acquisitions,” said Bill Barnett, C9 Hotelworks managing director.
C9 Hotelworks expects international hospital chains to follow suit soon. Already, Phuket is seeing more hospital acquisitions and increased cross-border cooperation for facilities in cosmetic surgery and wellness.
“We expect the Phuket healthcare tourism sector to be a positive long-term proposition,” Barnett said.
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Source: Property Report