A Chinese company is sending more than 12,000 people on a holiday to Thailand, tourism officials say, with one resort hosting a series of back-to-back banquets catering to thousands of guests at a time.
Thailand’s tourism body said on Thursday the enormous group of holiday-makers was one of the largest they had accommodated from a company in China, where employees and customers are often rewarded for meeting targets.
“It will be a challenge but it’s one we relish,” Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, the executive director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s public relations wing, told AFP.
The 12,700 tourists are being sent by Infinitus China, a direct sales company, and began arriving in Thailand on 10 May, Chattan said.
They will travel in groups of 2-3000 at a time and will make a six-day trip to Bangkok and the nearby seaside town of Pattaya, he added.
Those arriving include both employees of the firm as well as freelance sales staff and regular customers.
The visit comes less than a week after France received 6400 Chinese holiday-makers from a single Chinese firm - Tiens Group - that booked 4760 rooms in 79 four-and five-star hotels.
A tour guide involved in the colossal task of organizing 400 coach trips to ferry the groups said 300 colleagues would be on hand until the last holiday-maker leaves on 23 May.
A planning schedule shows the hotel intends to host four nights of giant banquets, the largest of which will feed 3935.
Tourism is one of Thailand’s largest earners, usually accounting for around 10 per cent of GDP, and China sends the largest number of tourists. But the industry has taken a hit thanks to ongoing political instability and a significant drop in Russian arrivals following the rouble’s depreciation.
