Bangkok--15 Oct--Grayling Thailand
Leading global travel search site Skyscanner is confident of maintaining its rapid growth rate in Thailand. Thai travellers have quickly embraced Skyscanner’s Thai language web page and apps and their support has enabled Skyscanner to record a 450% traffic growth rate in the past 12 months.
Andy Sleigh, Skyscanner’s Asia Pacific General Manager said the success in Thailand was consistent with take-up rates in other Asian markets where Skyscanner has enjoyed spectacular traffic and revenue growth over the past year. Skyscanner now receives over 60 million visits globally each month, while its free mobile apps have now been downloaded 25 million times to make them one of the world’s most-used travel search apps.
Speaking at Skyscanner’s inaugural press briefing held in Bangkok on September 26, Mr Sleigh said:
“As a relative newcomer to Asia Pacific, we have made a super start with a growth rate of over 400% in traffic and revenue in the region last year. This was driven by key trends including the continuing rapid growth of tourism in Asia Pacific, fast-rising smartphone penetration in many markets, the launch of new budget airlines and terminals, and the opening up of major new destinations such as Myanmar.”
He added, “These factors are also very relevant to Thai travellers and the local inbound market, and we are quietly confident of further significant growth in our web traffic numbers in Thailand next year.”
Grace Pobprapha Areerat, Skyscanner’s Market Development Manager for Thailand echoed Mr Sleigh’s forecast.
“We have been pleasantly surprised by the response to our Thailand site and apps since our low-profile launch in 2011. We have customised our products for Thais and rolled out new service features, apps and marketing campaigns. The uptrend is still in place with the plan to launch more in the future,” said Ms Grace Areerat.
Caption: Popular TV travel host, Vaan Ratchu (far right) joined Skyscanner representatives (from left) Sam Poullain, Pobprapha Areerat, and Andy Sleigh at the media briefing held in Bangkok on September 26.