Gwendolyn Yap

Asian Angle | 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

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People attend a concert in Bangkok by Thai metal band Defying Decay in 2022. Photo: AFP

Gwendolyn Yap

Published: 10:00am, 7 Jan 2024

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.

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.

Asian Angle | 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

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