Tourism Development and Promotion Strategies of Ancient Towns in Chongqing from the Perspective of Thai Tourists

Abstract

With the deepening of globalization, China’s inbound tourism market has shown a strong recovery momentum. Especially driven by the China-Thailand visa-free policy, Thai tourists’ enthusiasm for traveling to China is expected to rise further. As the economic and cultural center in southwest China, Chongqing has become a popular destination for Thai tourists with its unique mountain-city features and rich historical relics. This study uses word cloud analysis to examine package tour data from Thai travel agencies to China, and combines word cloud analysis with grounded theory to analyze travel vlogs about China posted by Thai travel bloggers on YouTube, so as to identify the tourism preferences of Thai tourists visiting China. The combination of the two methods provides a comprehensive analytical perspective with both breadth and depth. The results show that ancient towns in Chongqing have significant appeal to Thai tourists due to their simple architectural styles and profound cultural deposits. However, the development of ancient-town tourism presents a polarization: well-known ancient towns suffer from overcrowding, while lesser-known ones lack visitor arrivals. In addition, ancient-town tourism is confronted with challenges such as over-commercialization, inadequate supporting facilities and management, and homogeneous operation. From the perspective of Thai tourists, this study analyzes their tourism preferences and proposes further development strategies for ancient-town tourism in Chongqing targeting Thai tourists.