Tag Archives: Thailand

The PATA Destination Marketing Forum (PDMF), themed on ‘Growth with Goals’, welcomed 290 delegates from 25 destinations. The event, hosted by Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), with the support of Khon Kaen Province, brought together delegates from the public and private sectors for insightful discussions on some of the major issues in marketing and managing tourism growth to lesser-known destinations. Dr Mario Hardy, PATA, CEO said, “This event stems from the need to help secondary and tertiary areas grow and develop into widely recognised, bucket-listed tourism destinations. Aligning with our advocacy theme of tourism dispersal, the forum shines the spotlight on new and emerging destinations, introducing delegates to lesser-known yet attractive corners of the world. It is designed to assist communities economically in these destinations by encouraging dispersion of tourists to new frontiers.” Delegates will hear from experienced industry professionals during the conference on major topics like ‘Status of Destination Management Around the World’, ‘Role of Local Experiences in Destination Marketing’, ‘Managing the Disconnect between Destination Organisations and Communities’, ‘Transborder Marketing. Case Studies of GMS’, ‘Fighting Undertourism Through Innovative Storytelling’, ‘Calculating our Impact as Destinations’ and ‘Leveraging Technology to Revolutionise the Travel Space’.

GoAir is all set to commence its international flight operations by offering India’s first-ever direct service to Phuket, Thailand effective October 11, 2018 from Delhi and Mumbai. This will be followed by its second international service connecting Mumbai and Delhi with Male, Maldives effective October 14, 2018. These destinations will also be connected from Bengaluru in the near future. GoAir will continue to operate its A320 aircraft in all operations and on both these international routes. The airline will operate three direct flight services per week between Mumbai – Phuket – Mumbai at a return fare starting from Rs 18,999 (all inclusive); two direct flight services per week between Delhi – Phuket – Delhi at a return fare starting from Rs 18,999 (all inclusive). Similarly the airline will operate three direct flight services per week between Mumbai – Male – Mumbai at a return fare starting from Rs 17,999 (all inclusive); 2 direct flight services per week between Delhi – Male – Delhi at a return fare starting from Rs 18,999 (all inclusive). Commenting on the launch of their international operations, Cornelis Vrieswijk, CEO, GoAir said, “Phuket and Male are key tourist destination and hold a lot of promise. As an LCC, we have always strived to offer the best value for money to our customers and now we extend this proposition to the international traveller as well. The international schedules have been planned to allow quick and convenient connections for customers and is a reflection of our continued journey towards excellence.”    

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) announced that Thailand has been named as the host country for the 19th International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA Awards), which is scheduled to be held in Bangkok from 22-24 June, 2018. This makes the second time the Thai capital plays host to the biggest celebration of Indian cinema, having hosted the 9th IIFA Awards on 8 June, 2008. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, said, “India is one of Thailand’s important sources of visitor markets. Being named as the host country for the glitzy and glamorous IIFA Awards for the second time reiterates Thailand’s positioning as the preferred destination among Indian travellers.” Wizcraft International, the producers and creators of the IIFA, made the official announcement at a press conference held in New Delhi on 17 May, 2018. Making the appearances to confirm Bangkok as the host city for this June’s star-studded weekend included Bollywood bigwigs Ranbir Kapoor, Karan Johar, Dia Mirza, Shahid Kapoor and Kartik Aaryan.

VITS Hotels Worldwide has announced a joint venture with Exhicon Group in Thailand. The new entity will operate under VITS-EXHICON (Thailand) Co. and an office with a seasoned team of professionals will be established in Bangkok. Vikram Kamat and Chandrakant Shetty will be directors in the new entity. The JV partnership will work on hotel acquisitions, OTA management, staff training, procurement and F&B operations within Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Dubai. VITS Hotels will provide hotel management expertise, marketing, sales support, human resources and distribution network while EXHICON will support with its local business network, project acquisitions and overseas procurement. Both VITS and EXHICON will own 50 per cent share in the joint venture management company. Vikram Kamat, Managing Director, VITS Hotels Worldwide, said, “Our partnership offers immense opportunities to leverage on each other’s expertise to expand the VITS hotel brand in Far East and Middle East. We aim to channelise our resources with our valued partner to establish footprints in key destinations and draw tourists from India and abroad.” Chandrakant Shetty, CEO, VITS Hotels Worldwide, said, “With our collaboration with EXHICON Group, we are now pleased to announce the VITS luxury experience in overseas shores. The joint venture will create a formidable recipe for establishing hotels in key destinations. We will be launching our first hotel in Phuket near Patong beach by January 2018.”

Vietnam’s low-cost airline, VietjetAir has appointed Bird Travels as its GSA in India. Vietjet has been expanding its flight network in Vietnam and will continue to spread its wings to new destinations in the Asia Pacific region and around the world. Vietjet’s flight network covers Vietnam extensively and includes connections to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar and eight destinations in China. It is operating a fleet of A320s and A321s having an average age of 3.3 years.

AirAsia has introduced two new routes between India and Thailand with a Bangkok-Jaipur connection and a Bangkok-Tiruchirappalli connection respectively. While both routes will ply four times a week, the former will run on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday while the latter will run every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday starting September 28, 2017.  Aiming to attract Indian shoppers to Thailand, the new routes come with promotional fares available. Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO of Thai AirAsia said that AirAsia plans to continually penetrate the Indian market in the latter half of 2017 as it is a major market with great growth potential.  Indian travellers rank sixth among the most frequent visitors to Thailand while the Kingdom responds to all kinds of lifestyles from shoppers and night-time entertainment seekers to travellers looking for hospitality and wellness retreat.  The airline is confident that the two new routes will stimulate tourism for both countries. Thai AirAsia presently flies direct from Thailand to four fascinating Indian cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Kochi, maintaining a Load Factor average of 80 percent with 80-85 percent of passengers coming from India, indicating determined strength of the market where travellers have consistently showed excellent feedback toward AirAsia.

Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism released figures showing that during the first four months of this year, 12 million visitors came to Thailand spending around 620 billion Baht, an increase of 4.71 per cent when compared with the same period in 2016. The kingdom also witnessed a growth of 17 per cent in the number of Indian arrivals compared to 2016 in the same period. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor said, “Thailand attracts many tourists because it offers experiences that are new and unique, no matter how many times you visit. In the first few months of the year, the combination of lovely weather and amazing festivals; such as, Songkran or the Thai New Year celebrations means there’s much to enjoy for travellers, not to mention locals.” The ministry projects Thailand’s tourism-related revenue in 2017 will reach THB2.71 trillion. Of that, THB1.78 trillion will come from foreign visitors and THB930 billion from domestic travellers. In 2017, Thailand intends to focus on specific tourism segments such as sports, medical and wellness and weddings.

Star Cruises has announced the new homeport deployment of SuperStar Gemini to Laem Chabang in Thailand. It will be based in Laem Chabang International Terminal beginning 17 December, 2017 through to 27 April, 2018. Ang Moo Lim, President, Star Cruises, said, “We are excited to announce Star Cruises’ return to The Land of Smiles with the deployment of SuperStar Gemini at Laem Chabang. Our long history with Thailand stretches all the way back to 1995 when we first called upon Phuket and,today, we are proud to be able to call Laem Chabangour new home come 17 December this year. Thailand has the largest number of tourists of all ASEAN countries and the two airports of Bangkok serve more than 85 million passengers every year,” added Ang.“This is a perfect location for fly-cruise passengers and we will work closely with inbound agents to package cruises with land vacations – providing tourists yet another reason to visit Thailand.  We will make Bangkok the “Gateway to IndoChina” due to its superior air and tourist infrastructure.” During her deployment, SuperStar Gemini will embark on three-night cruises to Sihanoukville and Ko Samui, departing every Sunday, two-night cruises to Sihanoukville, departing every Wednesday, and two -night cruises to Koh Kong Island, departing every Friday.

The Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has launched two campaigns that offers incentives for exhibitors as well as attendees from India. The delegation led by Kanokporn Damrongkul, Senior Business Development Manager, Exhibitions Department, TCEB, were in Mumbai to launch these two campaigns. The ‘Exhibiz in Market’ campaign is its latest drive towards expanding exhibition space at international exhibitions in Thailand. Damrongkul reveals, “India is an active participant in Thailand’s trade shows, contributing 2.92 per cent of total overseas exhibitors in 2015. The majority of them exhibited in the food and agriculture sector followed by automotive and health and wellness. TCEB’s Exhibiz in Market scheme is a new funding initiative conceived to generate pavilions at international trade shows in Thailand. The scheme offers financial assistance between USD 1,500 – USD 5,500 for leaders of commercial pavilions between 36 sqm and 250 sqm in size.” The other scheme called ‘Connect Business Campaign’ offers incentive of USD 100 per person for attendees with a mazimum of 300 pax per show.

To mark the celebration of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and India, the Royal Thai Consulate General in Mumbai will organise a cultural commemorative titled ‘Namaste Thailand in Mumbai’ on March 11-12, 2017 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya (Prince of Wales Museum) from 4.30pm onwards with no entry fees. The spectators can witness classical Thai dance and music along with a variety of shows and unique dance forms from different parts of Thailand. Muay Thai and different forms of martial arts too will be performed by the professionals. There will also be a photo exhibition area where the pictures from the #FocusThailand contest will be displayed.