TTM+ 2013: All about promoting Thainess

BANGKOK- It looked like a paradox: the more successful Thailand tourism turns, the more the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) looks at refining its strategy. Thailand is currently experiencing its most successful years as a destination.

“Total international arrivals jumped by 16% last year to reach another record of 22.3 million. All major markets have recorded growth, including Europe, up last year by 10.7% to 3.6 million arrivals. East Asia and the ASEAN continue to gain market shares with a growth last year of 21.1% to 12.5 million travellers”, told during the traditional TTM press conference Juttaporn Rerngronasa, Deputy Governor in charge of Europe and the Americas. Looking at the first figures for 2013, TAT Deputy Governor indicated that in January-April 2013, Thailand’s visitor arrivals surged to a record total of 8,841,730, up by 19.04% over the same period of 2012. Visitors from East Asia and ASEAN alone totaled 4.82 million (+28.72%) while China skyrocketed to 1.53 million travellers, up by 92.8%!

It will now all be about the way to manage this fantastic growth. According to Mrs. Rerngronasa, Thailand is now aiming to attract 24.1 million international visitors this year with revenues from tourism likely to reach 37 billion US dollars. But quality should still prevail over quantity thanks to more effective marketing campaigns looking at bringing a bigger share of upper class high spending travellers. “We would love to increase the upmarket segment to 30% compared to 20% currently,” said Deputy Governor for Asian Markets Sansern Ngaorangsi.

Declining the concept of “Thainess” is one of TAT’s marketing tool to achieve this. “A Thailand holiday is a lot of fun and offers additional value for those who want to immerge themselves into our culture, from learning Thai cooking to breeding elephants or to practice the art of Thai boxing”, explained Juttaporn Rerngronasa. TAT is now actively engaged into online marketing and the use of social media to deliver its message.

TAT is also conscious that a rapidly increase in visitor arrivals would also generate an impact on the environment. The strategic shift to a more tailored offer is seen as necessary in order to preserve the quality of Thai destinations, products and services.

One of the way to control potential damage of a high level of travellers is to decongest the most popular destinations by proposing alternative locations. “We now promote more actively for Europeans or Americans new beach destinations such as Trang or Khanom Beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat on the East Coast”, told Mrs Rerngronasa. “It is pretty different for Asian markets, which favour mostly urban destinations. We have launched extension in Bangkok surrounding which are now turning very  successful. We for example saw a strong increase in Asians visits to Khao Yai National Park, which used to be a pure domestic holiday retreat. We also promote circuits starting from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Nayok, Ang Thong, Suphan Buri, Trat, Chanthaburi or Chumphon. It works really well”, said Sansern Ngaorangsi. TAT works to push spread the flows of tourists from Chiang Mai to other Northern cities or from Phuket to surrounding islands or other Southern resort areas.

The Thai government has been more than ever conscious of the active role play by tourism to boost people’s wealth. The budget of TAT has seen a sharp increase over the last years, standing at US$ 200 million. “Our Governor is now fighting to get a 15% increase for the coming fiscal year”, told Mrs. Rerngronasa.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews