Intrepid Travel, one of the world’s leading adventure travel companies, has announced that May sales to Thailand grew by 148% compared to the same period last year, a strong sign that tourism to Thailand has bounced back following the Bangkok protests just over a year ago.
Thailand recorded the highest growth of any of the 130 destinations worldwide where Intrepid Travel runs its small group adventures.
It was also good news for Australia, which saw a 77% increase in bookings despite the strong Aussie dollar being seen by the industry as a deterrent to international visitors.
Other destinations that recorded strong growth were Spain (97%) and Turkey (65%).
"Thailand is the first destination that we started travelling to over 22 years ago so we are delighted to see it bounce back. We have many friends in Thailand, including our local leaders and homestay operators so we are pleased to be bringing them more business," said James Thornton, General Manager, Global Sales.
"We attribute our growth in Australia to our price point. Australia is on many people's bucket list so the strong dollar won't necessarily be a deterrent altogether, they'll just look for a better value product and that's what we offer."
"We'd expect to see Spain booming as we head into the European summer and Turkey seems to be attracting visitors who would otherwise have gone to Egypt. Having said that, our operating company in Egypt has reported that the situation there has turned around and we expect that it will follow Thailand's lead and bounce back soon."