Photo Caption: From L – R: Pinki Arora, Marketing Representative North & East India, Bangladesh & Nepal, TAT; Pattarat Hongtong, Ambassador of Thailand to India; Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director, TAT, New Delhi office & Nitin Sachdeva, India Representative, Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB)
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is engaging in PR, marketing activities, and familiarisation trips for key partners like travel agents to attract tourist arrivals from the Indian market.
India was Thailand’s fastest-growing tourism market in the pre-pandemic days of 2019.
“As part of our ‘Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters’ campaign our focus in India is to showcase Thailand with new perspectives and experiences. We are looking to promote sustainable, more responsible, more digital, and more inclusive tourism growth,” said Tanes Petsuwan, Deputy Governor for Asia and South Pacific, TAT while virtually addressing a press conference in New Delhi last week.
Petsuwan shared that the NTO will be also focusing on new markets in India like northeastern states apart from the key metro and secondary feeder markets. “North-East India is going to be connected to Thailand through land via Myanmar, which will open new tourism opportunities,” added Petsuwan.
The India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway is being constructed as part of India’s ‘Look East’ policy. Once completed, the highway will connect Moreh in India with Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.
“With vaccination rates improving, tourism demand is expected to grow in the future. India and Thailand are celebrating their 75th year of diplomatic relations this year and with Thailand’s ‘Test & Go’ system in place, we expect a large number of Indian tourist arrivals,” said Pattarat Hongtong, Ambassador of Thailand to India.
For short-haul international markets, TAT is leveraging on the Test & Go entry scheme, highlighting ‘New Chapters, New Opportunity’ offerings. New segments are being targeted such as bleisure (business and leisure), students, digital nomads, and soft adventure.
“We are carrying out joint promotions with airlines and travel trade partners for the promotion of Thailand. We expect direct connectivity to greatly improve between the two countries with India now allowing scheduled international flight operations,” said Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director, TAT, New Delhi office.
The demand from the Indian wedding and incentive markets has already begun.
“A number of queries are being received from Indian wedding planners, who have expressed interest in taking their groups to Thailand from May onwards,” said Pinki Arora, Marketing Representative North & East India, Bangladesh & Nepal, TAT.
“The MICE segment has been a key driver for Indian tourist arrivals to Thailand in the pre-pandemic days. We expect a strong MICE movement from India this year,” said Nitin Sachdeva, India Representative of the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB).
Nearly 2 million Indian tourists visited Thailand in 2019, a growth of 25 percent compared to the previous year.