Situational Analysis

According to statistics from the General Department of Tourism, international visitors to

Vietnam in October this year reached about 1.6 million, up 33.8% over the same period last

year.

The market of Southeast Asia has grown impressively. Especially, the highlight is that the Thai
market continuously maintained a record growth rate this year, the highest among source
markets (+ 47.7%), particularly in October increased by 60.3%. Vietnam tourism has witness a
hike of Thai visitors, therefore the frequency of flights of Thai airlines to Vietnam is also
greater with the top destination as Da Lat city and Da Nang city. (“Thai Vietjet to increase”,
2019). Thanks to the three new routes, Thai AirAsia now offers 7 routes, to 5 destinations to
Vietnam with acceptable prices. As a results, more than three thousand Thai people visited
Vietnam in 2018. (Toomgum, 2019).

Consumer Insights

Millennials, mark up more than 45% of the Asia Pacific population, which is a group that no
one can ignore. (Taylor, 2019). At the present, Millennials, with the higher incomes than
post-millennials, are being recognized as the generation has the most impact in the next 20
years. In addition, they are more embracing new technology, new experience and different
ways to travel. (Market trend, 2018).
According to Sofronov (2018), Millennials will create the new trend for the tourism industry,
because they are the most traveler among other demographic. In addition, Millennial has so
different behavior in term of tourism.

Considerations for travel

 Experience:
 Good attractions
 Fits their budget
 Shopping places
 Who they are travel with

As with the broader Millennial trend, Thai individuals place high value on self-expression,
and will therefore choose that meet their personal needs (Sachamuneewongse, 2018).
They are a unique group in that they are willing to spend on products and services that
meet their needs, however, they are also like to save on costs. 54% of Thai Millennials
place importance on savings (Fleischmann Hillard, 2018). 36% value recommendations
that help them to save money (Amadeus, 2018). Thai Millennials are special in that they
value money as essential, but happiness is more important. 70% see money as the best
measure of success, and 87% say that they feel good after spending money on
themselves (Fleischmann Hillard, 2018). However, they can be cautious travelers, 61%
will avoid any destination that they see as risky, this may be due to natural disasters and
extreme weather, or terrorism and security (Amadeus, 2018).

Buying Process Analysis

 Recognize of the need

Seraching information

Evaluate the alternatives

Decide the final choice

Make decision

Payment process

Post-purchase behavior

During the very first stage “Need recognition”, the young people will find a need of vacation
accidentally. For example, after watching a movie with beautiful scène of the beach, they will
want to go to the beach; or after reading the news about their idols’ trip, they tend to want
to travel. They tend to search information by themselves rather than come to travel agent
like their parents. Millennial tends use new technologies, and particularly the web, to
organize their holidays. (Monaco, 2018). Thai Millennials are aged between 25 and 36 and
show low attachment to specific brands, although their winning categories are food and
internet services (Kasemsahasin, 2018). They are open to new technology, experiences and
ways of travel (Amadeus, 2018). Their tech-savvy nature and their value of convenience
means that ridesharing and short stay accommodation are especially popular. Furthermore,
77% of Thai Millennials show an interest in augmented reality apps for interacting with
historical or cultural sights (Amadeus, 2018).

Social media is the top choice for Thai Millennials, with 45% preferring to be contacted via
these channels. (Amadeus, 2018). There is also a strong trend for showing an attractive
online appearance. More than a third of Thai Millennials use social media to plan their travel
trips. And 35% do this research and preparation during the weekend. 61% use their mobile
phones for research, and 56% to make their bookings. They are also open to communication
and recommendations at all stages of their trip planning and during their travel.

Competitor Analysis

The top three destination of Thai travelers are Japan, South Korea and Hong for the past
three years. However, Vietnam has a massive growth in 2018-2019, and become the most
popular destination for Thai tourists at the moment, with the number of Thai visitors grow up
30%. As the result, Vietnam was the sixth choice for Thai visitors, behind China, South
Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia.

With the data of Grab users (2019), 34% the overseas rides taken by Thai users were booked
in Malaysia and 23% in Vietnam.Vietnam is well positioned to serve the Thai Millennial
segment to meet these needs. There is a strong national food culture and easy app services
for Grab, Booking.com and Airbnb. Wi-Fi is broadly available, especially relevant given the
majority of Thai travelers prefer this way to stay connected (Amadeus, 2018).
Malaysia Singapore Japan
Websit https://www.tourism https://www.stb.gov.sg/cont https://www.jnto
e .gov.my/ ent/stb/en.html .go.jp/
 https://www.malaysi https://www.visitsingapore. https://www.jap
a.travel/en com/en/ an.travel/

Positio Multipurpose A reputation of the high quality “Top of mind” from

ning destination, vacation or tourism with sophisticated all around the
culture journey tourists world
Target Middle income travel Business travel High income
Family
Strengt Affordable cost Developed economy Well-developed
hs Unique destination Varied entertainment options business sectors
image Biggest shopping place Developed
Rich culture structure Safe entertainment
options
Develop country
Beautiful nature
High quality service
Weakn Lack of policy for price Small High cost
ess range Limited natural resources Unsafe
Political problems Few nature Attractions Natural disaster
Not strong government
support

SWOT
 Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat

•Government •Weak marketing •rapidly increasing •environmental

support strategy outbound industry concern
•Beautiful nature •middle services •new market for air •many strong
and extensive •lack of trained staffs access - new competitors
attractions •some quality issues reoutes open in •unpreditable issues
•Strong culture Thailand •massive marketing
•limitted
traditions, heritage, understanding •support from of competitors
festivals about "country connection with
•updated trendly image", "branding" Thai government
attractions offer •unsafe for alone •oversea
variety of product traveler representation
and services •e-marking, growing
•too many tour
•Affordable price company with no of social media
range policy for price •
•e-visa with simple •outdated
process infrastructure
•new hotels, resorts
Amadues Report. (2018). Journey of Me Insights: What Asia Pacific Millennial Travelers.
Retrieved from https://amadeus.com/documents/en/airlines/research-report/journey-of-
me-report/amadeus-journey-of-me-insights-apac-report-th_en.pdf
Kasemsahasin, S. (2018). Exploring Thailand Millennials: their beliefs, attitudes and
perceptions in society. FleishmanHillard Thailand.
Sachamuneewongse, S. (2018, October 8). Millennial priorities highlighted. Bangkok Post.
Retrieved from https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1561242/millennial-priorities-
highlighted
Kansirisin, W. (2019). Social Media Trends 2019: Part 2 – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter:
Which Platform is Best? Lexiconthai. Retrieved from https://lexiconthai.com/blog/social-
media-trends-2019-facebook-instagram-twitter-which-platform-is-best/

Thai Vietjet to increase services to Da Lat and Da Nang (2019, Mar 25). Bangkok Post.
Retrieved from https://www.bangkokpost.com/travel/1650852/thai-vietjet-to-increase-
services-to-da-lat-and-da-nang

Toomgum, S. (2019, Feb 25). Thai AirAsia adds new route to tap Vietnam market, offers 5
destinations in 7 routes. Nation Thailand. Retrieve from
https://www.nationthailand.com/Tourism/30364753

Sofronov, B. (2018). “Millennials: A New Trend for the Tourism Industry.” Annals of Spiru
Haret University. Economic Series, 18(3), 109-122, doi: https://doi.org/10.26458/1838

Monaco, S. (2018), "Tourism and the new generations: emerging trends and social
implications in Italy", Journal of Tourism Futures, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 7-15.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-12-2017-0053

Grab, 2019. https://www.grab.com/th/en/blog/grab-data-shows-singapore-residents-are-

the-most-well-travelled-in-southeast-asia/

https://www.skyscanner.co.th/media/travel-trend/thailand-travel-trend/big-data-deep-dive-
thai-travel-trend-en
Thai AirAsia adds new route to tap Vietnam market, offers 5 destinations in 7
routes. (2019, February, 25). Retrieved from
https://www.nationthailand.com/Tourism/30364753

Taylor, M. (2019, September 11). “The most influential brands among Thailand’s millennials”.
The Thaiger. Retrieved from https://thethaiger.com/news/business/the-most-

influential-brands-among-thailands-millennials

Market trend. (2018). Thailand and Asia Pacific millennial travelers more open
to new tech. Retrieved from https://www.startupthailand.org/en/thailand-and-
asia-pacific-millennial-travelers-more-open-to-new-tech/