A fresh pledge from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will ensure that all the stops are pulled out in order to entice visitors back to the country. This includes rewriting its marketing strategy and increasing its promotional activity. The move comes on the back of figures released recently that show a drop in arrival figures for the first four months of 2009. 3.2 million Visitors visited Thailand in this quarter, a decrease from the previous year by 19 percent.
Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT deputy governor for marketing communications spoke at the Thailand Tourism Market (TTM) and gave the reasons for the year on year decline as: “The global economic downturn, Thailand’s political situation and the H1N1 virus.”
In order to revive the market, TAT is targeting four key sectors: The Ready to Travel Group will focus on those countries that were not affected by the political unrest which recently troubled Thailand. Countries such as Russia, India and Scandinavia will be targeted in this group. The Returning Visitors Group which includes the top European countries with historically good travel links to Thailand, but who have been affected by the economy and the political situation. The Concerned Traveller Group is a market sector including countries like Vietnam, Australia and China who are reluctant to return to Thailand given the recent rioting. Finally, the fourth market, which includes Korea, Japan and Taiwan will be targeted as the Highly Sensitive Traveller group. TAT also plans to launch a number of roadshows to various countries in order to win back tourism.
