Senior officials of TAT at a promotional event in New Delhi
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will be focusing on millennials and quality tourism in India this year. The tourism board is targeting a growth of 10 percent from the Indian market in 2020.
“The focus will be on quality tourists who have good spending power to achieve our sustainable tourism goals,” said Klissada Ratanapruk, Executive Director, ASEAN South Asia and South Pacific Region, TAT while addressing reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event in New Delhi.
Around 1.9 million Indian tourists visited Thailand in 2019, a growth of over 20 percent over the previous year. Strong air connectivity with a focused marketing strategy of TAT has ensured strong tourist demand for Thailand in the Indian market. There are over 300 flights per week at present that connect India to Thailand, offering around 65,000 seats per week on the sector.
“The millennial segment has grown more than 30 percent for us in the past five years. Our new marketing campaign for the Indian market will focus on millennials. We are inviting few influencers to visit destinations like Bangkok and Koh Samui as part of this strategy, who we expect will project themes like 10 things to do in Bangkok or Koh Samui,” said Isra Stapanaseth, Director, TAT, New Delhi.
“We will work closely with Indian travel agents, airlines and social media platforms to create awareness about Thailand as a quality destination. Niche segments like millennials, wedding, and golf will help us draw high-value tourists to Thailand,” added Stapanaseth.
Presently, Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata are the three top source markets for Thailand in India. However, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Telangana are also adding to the overall tourist numbers from the Indian market.
“In spite of the slow down in the Indian economy, we expect that the demand from the secondary Indian cities will help us to meet our target in 2020,” said Stapanaseth.
At a time when the growth for Thailand from key source markets like China and Europe has become stagnant, South Asian and ASEAN markets have become extremely important for the destination to achieve its targets both in terms of tourist arrivals and revenue.
“We are targeting a modest growth from the Indian market this year as our focus in on high-value tourism. We understand that by focusing on quality tourists we will be anyways able to achieve our revenue target from the Indian markets,” said Kulpramote Wannalert, Deputy Executive Director, ASEAN South Asia and South Pacific Region, TAT.