Hotels digitise as a survival strategy

Thai hotels are accelerating digital and pricing strategies to stay competitive as international arrivals slow and the Chinese market, once Thailand's biggest tourism driver, remains tepid.

- KANANA KATHARANGSIPORN

According to the latest insights from SiteMinder, a hotel e-commerce platform, the sector is undergoing one of its most dynamic transformations in years, shaped by shifting travel patterns, intensifying competition, workforce challenges, and rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

SiteMinder’s data shows international arrivals during the first nine months of 2025 were down 7.16% from a year earlier.

The contraction was mainly driven by declining Chinese, Malaysian and South Korean arrivals, though the number of Indian, Russian, Japanese, British, and American travellers continued to rise.

Travellers booked more than a month before their trips on average and stayed longer. This signals a shift towards more considered, experiencefocused journeys, rather than short, spontaneous breaks.

The changing landscape has also been influenced by event-driven tourism. Major sporting and cultural gatherings, such as the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in December, have lifted Bangkok hotel bookings by double digits and nudged average room rates higher, noted the platform.

Yet behind the headline growth, competition is heating up. More than 160 new hotels with 40,000 rooms are now in development across the country, tightening margins and making revenue management a daily challenge for operators.