As family tourism booms in Asia, Thailand is putting kids first
With the summer-holiday season now under way in the northern hemisphere, Thailand is giving families the business-class treatment. The country’s immigration department has created special lanes at the four main airports to fast-track visiting families from China, Thailand’s second-largest inbound market. Dubbed “The Happy Chinese Summer Channel”, these fast lanes are cutting waiting times from 40 minutes to 15 for those bound for Phuket, Chang Mai and beyond. As all parents know, travelling overseas with young children can be challenging, so this special arrangement is bound to go down well with put-upon mums and weary dads flying in from Beijing or Shanghai. But the real strength of this promotion, as with most successful marketing campaigns, is its authenticity.
Thai airports have long treated families from all countries and travel classes like royalty, with VIP lanes often full of children. During April’s Songkran holiday, for example, kids waiting at luggage carousels reportedly received cuddly toys depicting Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo housed at Khao Kheow Open Zoo. Family travel is one of this decade’s biggest trends in Asia. Thailand’s tourism authority should lean into this and start promoting the myriad other ways that the country welcomes parents, from the nation’s friendly electric tuk-tuk drivers and Thai Airways’ considerate air stewards to the fact that passengers on the BTS Skytrain are almost always willing to give up their seats.
Before I moved to Bangkok from Hong Kong, I was frequently told how good the Thai capital was for families. Based on my experiences of being stuck in traffic on Sukhumvit Road, I assumed that this was nonsense. But two years later I’m evangelising the same thing. Entertaining children seems to cost an arm and a leg elsewhere but Bangkok offers so much to do for free. Take the bright-yellow, duck-shaped pedalos in Lumpini Park – you can spend a day riding one of these boats at no charge. Afterwards you might catch a free open-air concert by the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra at the nearby bandstand.
The Thai capital might not have museums of the same calibre as London’s V&A or The Met in New York but its Children’s Discovery Museum is free for all and you can spend an entire day digging up bones in a sandpit, splashing around in a fountain and riding on the back of a fire engine. This is a side of Thailand that many abroad are unfamiliar with. Adults can get up to all types of mischief here but this is a country that puts families first.
Chambers is Monocle’s Asia editor. Wondering where to go in the Thai capital? Be sure to consult our new Bangkok City Guide.
