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People attend a concert in Bangkok by Thai metal band Defying Decay in 2022. Photo: AFP
Opinion
Asian Angle
by Gwendolyn Yap
Asian Angle
by Gwendolyn Yap

Chinese fans dominate Thailand’s nascent ‘T-wave’, but is it enough to boost tourist figures?

  • As Thailand’s economy slows, it is mulling a move to a ‘creative economy’ by emulating South Korea’s entertainment sector
  • But unlike South Korea’s K-wave, Thailand’s emerging T-wave still appears too weak to significantly attract Chinese tourists post pandemic
Gwendolyn Yap
Gwendolyn Yap
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Before the pandemic, Singaporean office worker Vanessa Leong, 27, an acquaintance of this writer whose hobby is chasing idols, found herself among a horde of fans in Thailand waiting to welcome a celebrity at a meet-and-greet event.

Tanapon “Perth” Sukumpantanasan was a lead actor in the popular Thai television series Love by Chance. The crowd was mostly Chinese and Thai, with a smattering of fans from other countries.

According to Leong, fans from China are the second-largest group at such gatherings, after domestic Thai fans. Some ardent Chinese fans would fly in almost weekly to meet their idols, while the more fervent would move to Bangkok altogether, contributing to a trend of Thai entertainment driving Chinese tourists to Thailand.

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Today, the popularity of Thai dramas in China shows no signs of ebbing, thanks to the constant import of Thai dramas through streaming channels such as Tencent and iQiyi. To better interact with Chinese fans, many Thai celebrities set up accounts on microblogging site Sina Weibo alongside their usual social media platforms.

The most popular actor, Mike Angelo, has more than 8 million followers on Weibo. Younger rising actors, such as Chanon Santinatornkul and Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, have some 2 million and 1 million followers, respectively. Dubbed the “T-wave”, the popularity of Thailand’s performers has some commenters speculating that soon, Thai music and dramas will overtake South Korea’s K-wave.

Unlike the K-wave, however, this emerging T-wave still appears too weak to significantly attract Chinese tourists to Thailand post-pandemic. In fact, Thailand reported a sharp fall in Chinese tourist arrivals, from 2019’s 11 million to 2.2 million from January to September last year. By end-2023, Thailand expects to receive only 3.5 million Chinese tourists, a far cry from its initial target of 5 million for the year.

A Chinese tourist takes a selfie with Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin at Bangkok’s International Airport on September 25. Photo: Reuters
During the early days of the K-wave in 2011, by comparison, Chinese tourists who were influenced by the fan mania accounted for 57.1 per cent of tourist arrivals in South Korea. In 2013, South Korea’s largest group of inbound travellers were Chinese – some 3.92 million. The impact of Chinese tourists on South Korea was clear even after the pandemic ban on group tours was lifted last year, with shop owners putting up signs in Chinese and hiring Mandarin-speaking staff.

More broadly, the South Korean entertainment industry has had a much longer trajectory of global expansion, beginning in the 1990s, compared to Thailand, which saw its star rise starting from the late 2010s. The impact of Thai cultural influence on Chinese and other fans – and by extension the fans’ home countries – will naturally be limited in comparison to South Korea’s.

Unlike South Korea, Thailand’s strong tourism industry relied largely on its cultural, wellness/medical, and food industries before the Covid-19 pandemic, with the media industry only comprising a small slice of the pie. With Thailand’s economy slowing, there have been talks on how to boost the media industry through shifts towards a “creative economy”. This includes emulating South Korea’s investment in and export of its entertainment sector.

Music fans enjoy a life performance from their tuk-tuks, Thai traditional taxi cars, in Bangkok in 2020 at the Amazing Tuk Tuk Festival. Photo: AFP

Thus far, the weak impact of the T-wave in boosting the Thai tourism industry, particularly for inbound Chinese tourists, can be attributed to a few key reasons.

First, the South Korean entertainment industry was state-supported, which aided the global acceleration of the quality and quantity of music and drama produced in South Korea. Industry experts have called for the government to similarly support the Thai entertainment industry, and there were even plans to establish a special ministry for this purpose.

There is an existing government agency, the Creative Economy Agency (CEA), set up in 2018 to further develop the Thai entertainment industry. Taking a leaf from China’s book, the CEA invited South Korean producers to guide Thai filmmakers on how to promote Thai content. However, these initiatives are still new and have had little knock-on effect on other industries such as cosmetics and fashion, or tourism for that matter.

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Second, the effects of the T-wave remain concentrated among fans of Thai dramas and music. While it has and will contribute to tourism in Thailand, its effects are confined exclusively to Chinese fandoms and have not seeped into the general Chinese public’s consciousness.

Chinese tourist numbers in Thailand continue to be affected by China’s domestic downturn, with Chinese airlines cancelling flights due to the low number of bookings. Leong noted that her Chinese friends immediately returned to Thailand to chase their idols after the lifting of Covid restrictions in China. This suggests that the allure of Thai idols does spur dedicated fans to return to the country.

Thai star Metawin Opas-iamkajorn at a Tiffany & Co event in New York on April 27. Photo: AFP
Finally, and most importantly, the recent spate of tourist safety issues in Thailand remain a key concern for Chinese tourists. While Thailand used to be a key travel destination for them pre-pandemic, their low numbers since pandemic restrictions were lifted have been partly attributed to a blockbuster film, No More Bets, whose storyline featured Chinese tourists being abducted from Thailand to work at scam centres elsewhere. According to some reports, this film has greatly deterred Chinese tourists from visiting Thailand, as has a shooting incident on October 4 last year at Bangkok’s Siam Paragon shopping centre, where one Chinese national was killed.
Thailand launched visa-free travel for Chinese tourists starting from September last year, but this move alone is unlikely to raise Chinese tourist numbers, given the above circumstances. Unless Thailand seriously invests in the Thai entertainment industry and works on enhancing safety measures for inbound travellers, the nascent T-wave’s effects will be felt only in a limited fashion by its tourism industry.
Gwendolyn Yap is a Research Officer with the Regional Social & Cultural Studies Programme at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. This commentary was first published on ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s commentary website fulcrum.sg.
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