Forward bookings from airlines and indicators from leading travel agents suggest that Chinese arrivals to Thailand will reach record levels in 2015, as the King Power International Group reports sales up by 47% this year.

 

Speaking to TRBusiness in a detailed interview this month, she said: “With the exception of the tragic bombing in August, 2015 to date has been a very good year for the group. Traffic to Bangkok particularly has increased very significantly.

 

“Overall traffic at Suvarnabhumi is up 19.16%, to the end of August, and traffic at Don Muang is up 65%. Within those overall traffic numbers there are specific nationality changes that have generally had a very positive impact on sales.

 

 

“Total Chinese traffic at Suvarnabhumi is up 151% to 5,651,591 passengers. Indian passengers are another very important customer group for us and the traffic with them is up by 20% – and of the other key customer groups, Korean and Japanese traffic levels are up 38% and 13.3% respectively.”

 

She added that these positive increases have offset the decrease in Russian passengers (-49.8%) and Thai nationals, who are down by 14.73%. more happily she said: “Overall group sales are up 47%, versus the same period last year.”

 

Whelan pointed to an outstanding +72% sales performance by the cosmetics and skincare category, followed by watches (+76.68%), Jewellery (77.05%), tobacco (+ 30.08%) and leather goods(+ 30.94%).

 

She says this impressive growth has been driven by a combination of factors, including organic passenger growth and aforementioned rises in high spending overseas visitors.

 

An interview with Susan Whelan appears on page 30 of the October Cannes exhibition issue of TRBusiness and also on pages 81-85 in the bonus retail section of the Top 10 International Retailers 2015.