TAT partners with Etihad to tap travel agent power in Italy

ROME/BANGKOK - Top-performing frontline travel agents in Italy are to be the focus of a promotion campaign by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to increase visitor arrivals during the upcoming winter season.

Working in partnership with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, TAT will organise the “TAT/Etihad Travel Agent Contest” to boost competition amongst the agents selling air tickets and package tours to Thailand.

During the competition period, September 2014-January 2015, front-line travel agents will be required to provide the number of air tickets and packages they have a sold and write a short article about Thailand.

An estimated 50,000 agents have already received information about this campaign and about 500 are projected to actually join. The 10 winners will be awarded with a fam trip to Phuket and Krabi in March and the accommodations and gala dinner are offered by Kata Group, Thai partner of this special project.

Mr. Tanes Petsuwan, Executive Director of the Europe, Africa and Middle East Region, said, “Front-line travel agents still play a major role in influencing decisions by consumers. We are happy to partner with Etihad Airways in this win-win campaign that will benefit the airline, agents and Thailand.”

In 2013, Italy was the 8th biggest source of visitors from Europe — 207,192, an increase of 3.23% over 2012. In January – August 2014, Italian visitor arrivals totalled 145,456, an increase of 6.65% over the same period of 2013.

TAT is expecting a total of 193,939 Italian visitors by the end of this year.

In 2013, Italian visitors’ expenditure generated a total of 394 million Baht or US$12.10 billion (based on the exchange rate of 30.73 Baht to the USD) in foreign exchange revenue. This is based on an average daily expenditure of 3,841.77 Baht per person (US$125) per day over an average length of stay of 15.98 days.

The TAT Rome Office had earlier joined with TUI Ambassador, a large Spanish tour operator, to conduct a similar sales competition since July.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia