Create a stand out point

BANGKOK, 7 June 2012: Thailand’s travel industry has to learn to customise the traveller’s experience and create a “stand out” point to build the Thailand brand.

These were the core recommendations to come out of a Customise Your Experience seminar hosted at Thailand Travel Mart Plus 2012 at IMPACT Muang Thong Thani, Wednesday.

Hosted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, on the sidelines of TTM+ 2012, professional business coach Bill Sanderson waded into the branding issues and how the travel industry needs to meet challenges ahead and build brand.

He was followed by a panel discussion on four tourism niche markets; golf, ecotourism, weddings & honeymoons and health & wellness.

“These days tourism is about experience and competition is tough, while 70% of tourists are always looking for new destinations,” Mr Sanderson pointed out. “You have to work together to give the right message to generating potential in attracting tourists.”

On branding he said the key element was always the “stand out” point to communicate exactly what you are to customers.

“Price does not matter these days. All that matters is the travel experience and how it is delivered,” said Mr Sanderson.

“Don’t get stuck on the past success, be prepared to take risks and be open to change as well as understand and manage it,” he concluded.

Six panelists were led into a  niche market discussion by Asia Pacific Golf Group chief executive officer and chairman, Mike Sebastian.

Golfasian Company managing director, Mark Siegel suggested Thailand develop more integrate golf products package from low-cost green fees, various choices of hotels and resorts, food and drinks, transport as well as golf that can be played year round in Thailand.

“Apart from all these features, Thailand’s secret weapon is the caddy as they reflect true Thai hospitality,” said Mr Siegel.

Thai Spa Association president, Andrew Jacka, emphasised  unrivalled service levels and hospitality. Thailand is a mature tourism product that has graduated to offering very high quality service.

“Over 1.8 million foreigners seek medical or wellness services in Thailand and the country is well equipped with over 1,200 public and private hospitals across the country and around 19,000 of medical practitioners and 100,000 nurses.”

But he warned completion was tough.

“Thailand is not the only place thatmedical tourists consider, but the kingdom does enjoy a big slice of the health and wellness business as much as 40%.”

Ecotourism expert and Asian Oasis’s executive director, Chananya Phataraprasit, suggested that even though Thailand was a mature destination, ecotourism was not well known.

“There are endless ecotourism possibilities in Thailand such as traveling by public transport or on the skytrain in Bangkok with a guidebook to help you tour and reduce energy costs, or head North to experience culture and learn about a rural lifestyle,” said Ms Chananya. “The core of ecotourism is giving back to the community,” she added.

Foreign Wedding Planners owner, Neha Mehrotra, said that Thailand was a top destination for this segment and was flexible enough to deal with complicated Indian ritual weddings.

“India is the most outstanding example of success for Thailand’s wedding sector, which is now worth Bt550 million for just the Indian market alone,” said Ms Mehrotra.

Criticism of the event focused on the lack of time for audience participation and comment. There were too many panelists and too much time allotted to the keynote address, Customise Your Experience, that had very little relevance to the niche markets.

The  build up to the event, created high expectations that the audience would learn something new on niche markets. But like so many panel discussions, the presentations took up too much time and little effort was made to encourage interaction from the audience.

Sourced: ttrweekly