Hosts and guests aged 60 and above are booking on Airbnb in increasing numbers, and leading a new trend of multi-generation family travel beyond traditional tourist districts to experience local, authentic neighbourhoods, the platform said.

Globally, senior hosts are the fastest-growing of any age group of hosts on Airbnb, and there are now more than 400,000 senior hosts on Airbnb worldwide, the company said.

In 2017, senior hosts around the world earned over Bt65 billion, hosted more than 13.5 million guest arrivals at their listings, and welcomed travellers from over 150 countries.

In Thailand, there are currently almost 1,500 senior hosts on Airbnb, representing a year-on-year increase of more than 26 per cent, the platform said.

Senior hosts earned a combined total of close to Bt300 million, welcoming more than 52,000 guests into their homes. They also ranked among the most loved hosts in the world – senior hosts are the best-rated host age group in Thailand with more than 83 per cent of reviews of senior hosts receiving five stars.

“Known for their renowned welcoming hospitality and as avid world travellers, it’s not surprising that seniors in Thailand are ageing meaningfully by embracing the home-sharing community,” said Siew Kum Hong, Airbnb regional director for the Asia Pacific.

Senior guests are now the fastest growing of any age group on Airbnb, with the number of seniors who have booked on the platform growing 66 per cent in the past year.

Airbnb said Thailand’s seniors were the world’s most active, topping the list of countries with the highest proportion of senior guests on Airbnb. Across the country, seniors who booked on Airbnb grew 62 per cent in the past year alone, a figure that is expected to continuing trending up as a quarter of Thailand’s population are expected to be 65 and more by 2040, the company said.

Countries with the highest proportion of over 60s travelling on Airbnb (minimum 1,000 guests) are: Thailand, Japan, the US, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Italy, and Germany.

In turn, seniors around the world are flocking to Thailand for their getaways. Airbnb’s top trending destinations in Thailand among seniors include: Rawai, Phuket (73.68 per cent), Kathu, Phuket (56.78 per cent), and Chiang Mai (53.59 per cent). They are defined as the cities with the greatest year-on-year increase in number of bookings by senior guests for travel in 2018.

“It’s perhaps no surprise that we’re seeing such strong growth in this demographic. Seniors are healthier and wealthier than they’ve ever been, while also tending to take more and longer trips than other age groups,” noted Greg Greeley, president of homes, Airbnb.

Seniors are also at the forefront of a growing trend in Airbnb bookings: multi-generational family travel, where the booking guest is a senior travelling with children or an infant.

In the past year, Thailand has seen a 55-per-cent growth in multi-generational travel, with more than 40 per cent being first-time bookings. Popular travel destinations include Bangkok, Auckland, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Sydney, Kyoto and Taipei, with an average booking value of Bt4,700 per night.

Airbnb homes often provide amenities that make them ideal for family getaways: kitchens, shared dining spaces, and individual bedrooms and bathrooms. Multi-generational family travel bookings have grown 75 per cent in the past year. And in 2018, more than half of these multi-generational bookings have been by first-timers to the Airbnb community.

Under this package, visitors can learn local wisdom, see how locals lead their lives and participate in centuries-old activities in this under-explored landlocked area of Thailand.

In designing unique experiences for tourists, the locals were able to draw on research into creative tourism and eco-tourism conducted by a group of Thaksin University lecturers. The researchers examined the potential and guidelines for creative tourism, as well as the behaviour of tourists and their preferences, and were able to pinpoint the services that can help attract and meet the needs of new travellers.

Under the Thailand Research Fund, researchers spent time looking for what exactly will help connect tourists and local communities, and used this to help Phatthalung emerge as a tourist destination.

Phatthalung has long been a “stopover” – where people stopped by for lunch or to pick up a souvenir – before moving on to other traditional tourist destinations, Jiraporn Kongrode explained. She also shared her findings into the needs and behaviour of tourists towards creative tourism in the basin of Klong Pa Phayom-Klong Tha Nae.

“But to promote creative tourism, they will have to go further than they usually do – to see, buy, learn and test [by doing activities],” the university lecturer said.

Tourists will spend more time at a destination if locals can give them something to do, such as learning about village life and participating in local activities. This, in turn, will be good for the local economy, Jiraporn said, adding that the villagers were very interested in the studies because they will help boost their income.

Among the advice the researchers shared with the locals was to design one- or two-day packages that highlight the area’s scenery, gives tourists an opportunity to learn about local traditions and lifestyles, as well as offers them a chance to participate in traditional activities.

The trip created by the villagers includes seeing the first light of day at Klong Pak Pra, Thale Noi, in Khuan Khanun district. This area boasts the last large swamp forest in the province.

Starting just before dawn, tourists can see the sun rise over the horizon before taking a boat down the canal to enjoy traditional fishing with the use of “Yor Yak” or giant fishing nets.

Tourists also get to see lumphu or mangrove apple trees, as well as catch sight of water buffaloes as they wade through the wetlands, waterbirds and lotus blooms.

After the trip down the canal, the tourists will then be taken to a sago palm forest, and taught how to extract sago to make a starchy traditional dessert. They will also learn how to use the palm leaves to make a mat or roof.

During lunchtime, tourists will learn how to make local delicacies before sharing a meal with the villagers.

Visitors will also get to learn how farmers plant and harvest rice from Na Le or semi-flooded rice fields on the upper rim of Songkhla Lake. Seeing Na Le is a rare treat in Pak Pra, as it is one of the renowned and iconic tourist attractions of Songkhla Lake.

The group can then end the day by enjoying the sunset at Thung Chai Rong, a 2000-rai paddy field.

This was the result of a meeting between the countries’ tourism ministers in Kampot province on Wednesday.

The two sides also agreed to strengthen relations with each other, facilitate travel, improve the visa process and border crossings, promote the potential for reciprocal tourism, single-visa use and participation in tourism exhibitions.

Cambodia Association of Travel Agents president Chhay Sivlin said strengthening cooperation with Thailand was critical for the sector.

“Thailand has a lot of people and many international direct flights, so if we have good cooperation and use of the single visa, it will help Cambodia get more tourists,” she said, adding that Cambodia and Thailand are currently seeking to implement the Single-Visa system.

The Ministry of Tourism says that in the first eight months of this year, Cambodia received 3.9 million international tourists – up 11.7 per cent from 2017 year-on-year. The number of Thai visitors, 210,286, was down by 3.9 per cent.

The authority is seeking to improve its efficiency in the era of the digital economy and better serve tourists who are increasingly relying on technology as a significant tool for managing their travel needs.

The system will allow tourists to access travel information that lets them complete their trip planning more quickly and with greater convenience.

The TAT will initiate a “Tourism Smart Data Management” project so that information systems on tourism will be enhanced and developed. Such information will be managed and analysed, and then the resulting added commercial value can contribute to the development of the country. The project will be connected with the Kingdom’s strategic plan for the development of tourism and help the industry to become more sustainable while reaching the targeted segment of tourists so as to cater to their demands.

The project can be a pilot to help the TAT achieve its plan for promoting a greater number of tourist arrivals in the coming years.

For 2018, more than 37 million foreign tourists are expected to visit Thailand and they will create about Bt3 trillion of revenue for the country, up 9 per cent over last year. About Bt2 trillion of that amount will come from foreign tourists, up 9.44 per cent over last year, and a further Bt1 trillion from Thai travellers, an increase of 8.16 per cent over last year. The top 10 source countries for visitors are China, Russia, Malaysia, the US, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Australia, India and Germany.

Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, TAT’s deputy governor for policy and planning, said the authority will this month develop what it calls a “social listening system” under which it will collect significant data – such as the voices of customers and suppliers as well as weather forecasts and alerts and other helpful resources – from government and private organisations. The project will start operation and provide useful information to those involved in the tourism industry, both government and private operators, in December.

“The key challenge of the Tourism 4.0 era is the trend of using digital tools. It has become so popular for individual tourists and many travellers to use digital technology for all of their trips, both before and after travelling,” said Siripakorn.

“So, the TAT has developed Smart Data to be one of the tools to handle these challenges. It can keep and analyse the data that will benefit the tourism industry in the future.

“The TAT foresees the benefit and importance of applying digital technology in the organisation. Given this, the authority started the Tourism Smart Data Management project, which will become a key fundamental in smart data management on tourism, to be collected by the TAT and partners in the government and private sectors. Such tourism data will be classified and analysed to find its correlation, and to be scrutinised for maximum utility in the development of the local tourism industry,” said Siripakorn, who gave the example of using tourism information in many strategic activities, ranging from community development and generating revenue to tourism destinations to setting plans for the tourism development of the country.

Siripakorn also spoke of the use of Smart Data in supporting the TAT’s policy to promote tourism in the secondary cities, and that this plan will be prioritised by the government with the aim of reducing the concentration of tourism spending in the main cities and thus see more income flow into rural communities.

Further, Siripakorn said Smart Data will be an effective marketing tool in stimulating stakeholders in the tourism industry to check on information regarding the trends in tourism, so that they will be able to make preparations and develop their own locations as tourism destinations.

“Meanwhile, we at TAT have made an application called Thailand Tourism Map that provides information about 55 secondary tourism cities. The app technology will allow individual tourists to select different tourism destinations and tourism routes for their trip planning. The process can be conducted quite easily at their fingertips,” Siripakorn said.