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Below is the short story released by the National News Bureau of Thailand yesterday regarding the attempt to bring Americans back to Thailand. Since mid 2008 American tourism to Thailand has dropped by over half and this seems to be TAT’s response to the lack of American tourists in Thailand.
TAT Introducing Thai Tourism to Top American Media Purveyors
BANGKOK, 30 OCTOBER 2009 (National News Bureau of Thailand) – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has recently invited editors from leading magazines and newspapers in the United States to explore Thailand’s tourism products and services under the campaign “Bring the Cream of the Crop Media to Thailand.”
The trip lasted from 19-28 October with Deputy TAT Governor Juttaporn Rerngron-asa welcoming the guests at the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok. The American media group was taken on a tour of Jim Thompson’s house and various tourist destinations in Thailand including Chiang Mai, Phuket and Bangkok.
The TAT hopes the trip will help popularize tourist destinations in the country and encourage foreign tourists to return to Thailand. The campaign was created by the TAT office in New York City.
Will this attempt to lure Americans back to The Land of Smiles be successful? It is certainly necessary. While tourism figures are no longer published for the Kingdom of Thailand, by looking at the drop off in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2008 (http://www.tourism.go.th/2009/th/statistic/tourism.php) we can pretty much figure what the current state of tourism is in Thailand.
Assuming that the media groups who attended the campaign make an effort to bring Thailand to the forefront of affluent Americans attention as a premier long haul destination then I think we will see a resurgence of interest in Thailand among Americans.
After all, it will take several months to a year for the stories and articles to be published and if the economy cooperates by improving during that time there is no reason that this cannot be a huge success. Add a concerted advertising campaign on the part of TAT and I would think that late 2010 and 2011 could see a huge spike in American tourists coming to Thailand.
What is in question in my mind is if they can actually pull it off. Thailand has been trying for years to market itself to a more affluent and upscale tourist and while there has been some success I think that the bulk of the Western tourists coming to Thailand are not in the 6 figure income bracket.
Do you think that Thailand can become successful in marketing it’s tourism industry as catering more to upscale tastes and needs?
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