THAILAND TO PROMOTE ’12 HIDDEN GEMS’
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Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Minister for Tourism & Sports, Thailand recently launched the ‘Discover Thainess’ campaign during a press conference in Mumbai. Citing India as Thailand’s sixth largest source market, Wattanavrangkul stated that the destination aims to welcome 28 mn visitors in 2015, with a large contribution of 1.05 mn from India.
“In 2013 India crossed the 1 mn mark in arrivals in Thailand. Unfortunately, due to political unrest, this number dropped to 0.9 mn in 2014. However, the last quarter of 2014 has already seen an uptake in Indian numbers, especially from meetings and incentives groups; leisure and family holidays; and weddings. Thailand hosted 100 Indian weddings last year, which contributed to 10,000 pax. We foresee Indian arrivals increasing across all segments in 2015,” Wattanavrangkul said.
Speaking about the Discover Thainess campaign, she informed that the aim is to increase the destination’s visibility and give it a competitive edge by leveraging it’s specialities, including Thai cooking, boxing and dancing. Thailand has also added 12 Hidden Gems to its promotions, which feature 12 relatively unexplored destinations to showcase to Indian travellers – Lampang, Phetchabun, Buriram, Samut Songkhram, Loei, Ratchaburi, Trat, Chanthaburi, Trang, Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Nan.
The campaign also features the 12 Months of Happiness Fest with specific happiness themes, and activities around the same, planned for each month.
“We recognise tourism as an important Foreign Exchange earner and provider of employment. We have increased security for tourists and taken care of sustainability as well. To this end we are setting up tourist courts and embarking on beach cleanup activities. In addition, we are expanding our existing international airports and also developing an international airport in Phuket. Furthermore, Safari World is building another establishment in Phuket, slated to be ready by 2017,” Wattanavrangkul revealed.
Following the Asean Economic Community 2015 decision, Indians visiting Thailand will also be encouraged to visit the neighbouring countries, contributing to strong intra-ASEAN travel. The aim, Wattanavrangkul said, is to attract short stay but high spending traffic.
Film tourism is also a focus for the year, with Thailand seeing an upswing in film shootings in the destination. A total of 107 Bollywood films were shot in Thailand last year, the Minister revealed.
Furthermore, golf tourism seems to be picking up rapidly in Thailand. Last year it welcomed 600,000 golfers from around the world, of which approximately 10,000 were from India.