12700 Chinese go to Thailand for 6 days paid by their company

Less than a week after the arrival in Nice of 6,400 Chinese employees, invited by their boss, now it’

Forget all about the so-called gigantic 6400 tourists invited for holidays that made the buzz a few weeks ago. The latest massive Chinese tourist group has simply dwarfed this. We are talking about a whopping 12700 employee going together for free in Thailand (well paid by their company, Infinitus, to be more accurate.

But this time they will go to Bangkok and Pattaya.

Corporate massive group trips is rising in China

Seems like massive groups of employees going together for a few days overseas is the latest trend. First Tiens and its 6400, already old news, then Infinitus and its 12700.

Pay a trip for its employees has become a new trend in China’s firms. Indeed, do you remember the famous trip in France by the Chinese firm Tiens. Now, it seems that others boss thinks that it’s a interesting idea and decide to do the same in their business.”Just” A new method to motivate employees ?

The Infinitus’s travel

Hong Kong-based beauty products company Infinitus’employees, won’t go to Bangkok all at once to avoid the chaos such a huge group would provoke. They  travel in groups of 2,000 to 3,000 and are made in six days in Thailand: 3 days in Bangkok and 3 in the resort town of Pattaya.

The first group arrived on May 10, according to the Bangkok Post who first relayed the information. The latter is expected around the end of the month. For the occasion, only 4 and 5 star hotels have been booked (about 38,000 rooms), almost 400 coach trips were selected and some 300 guides or companions were also hired. Several giants dinners are planned, the largest count to 3,935 guests.

To make the trip between China and Thailand, the direction of Infinitus has reserved 110 seats on commercial flights. It’s a huge opportunity for the tourism in Thailand.

  • A great buzz around the destination itself given the media widespread cover of the event : I typed “12700 Chinese” on Google to have about 398000 results.

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A great financial opportunity? Yes but…

According to officials of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, this “group travel” should generate economic benefits of about $ 18 million. This is less than the $28 million of benefits generated by the group’s employees in Nice. And they were half as likely.

The Thai tourism authorities said that Infinitus wouldn’t want to stop there and would project to invite 20,000 of its employees next year.

The group Here, hasn’t made ny comment about possible new holidays in France … even if Rudy Salles, Deputy Mayor of Nice in charge of tourism, hopes to receive another 4,000 Chinese in September.

Chinese tourists flood the tourism industry to the joy of the related companies (MICE, OTA, Catering, Flight companies… With $3000 spent per trip Chinese tourists are the biggest spenders and that should not be forgotten.

My take on the event :

I think these two event, especially the second one is mostly a VERY costly buzz to get the companies under the international spotlight and gain what any Chinese would be looking for : Face.

Why? Let’s face it, Chinese companies are not well-known for their philanthropy ethic (ever heard about the Jia Ban, non paid overtime?). Face is what they get here and it is muc more valuable for them.

You have to understand this : part of the face concept is when you have “guest” in the wider sense you have to take care of all of their needs. In addition, everytime a boss goes out with his employees, he is the one who pays. The better you treat your hosts, the more you gain face!

Further readings

Should you want to know more about Chinese tourism take a look at these posts :

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