Test drive Thailand
For instance, selected tourists from the UK would post their experiences on the TAT’s London website. From the Indian, Hong Kong and Korean markets, celebrities, pop stars, sportspersons will visit Thailand and undertake activities there.
TAT Governor Phornsiri Manoharn disclosed this when she addressed the Skal Club of Bangkok yesterday.
She said next June, during the annual Thailand Travel Mart, a mega-fam trip would see over 500 international media and travel agents from major markets descending upon Thailand.
These moves are part of the TAT’s new focus on attracting “quality tourists with high yield.” “We will also be spending a lot of time and effort to enhance our E-marketing abilities through the vast online networks, including websites, blogs, discussion forums, travel clubs, mobile phone messages, etc, especially to reach the high-end target group in places like Japan, Australia and the US,” Manoharn said.
The TAT governor said with 60% of total arrivals being repeat visitors, the word-of-mouth marketing strategy works well. Next year, TAT will organise a project where Europeans would be invited to send their pictures of Thai destinations as part of a contest. These would be part of a Web Blog called Thailand Fan Club.
For the first quarter of this year, international visitor arrivals totalled 3.83 million, about 6% higher over the same period last year. While there has been strong growth from Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, key Asian markets experienced declines though the slack has been taken up by emerging markets such as Russia.
It hopes to achieve its target of 14.8 million international visitor arrivals this year. Looking ahead, the TAT is aiming for 15.7 million international arrivals next year – up 6% year-on-year.
It’s planning to open offices in Dubai, Moscow and Vietnam, markets which show great potential.
“We are also working actively in China which we project will become our top source of visitor arrivals by the end of this decade, overtaking both Malaysia and Japan,” said Manoharn.
Last year, Thailand signed an agreement with the Beijing Tourism Administration to combine the Chinese capital and Bangkok as dual destinations before or after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
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