GTA, TAT unveil new campaign to drive Thailand’s tourism recovery
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GTA has launched a new initiative aimed helping Thailand’s tourism industry recover from last month’s bombing in Bangkok.
The company unveiled its ‘Thailand, Stronger Together’ campaign in Bangkok today in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and 32 Thai hotels. The five-week campaign will see hotels offer a series of special packages and promotions which will then be distributed by GTA’s network of travel agency partners.
The promotions typically include “stay two, pay one” offers for two-night stays, and are mainly focused on Bangkok and Phuket.
GTA has also printed 10,000 t-shirts carrying the campaign hashtag, #ThailandStrongerTogether, which it hopes guests will wear and share on social media. GTA said it wanted to create a “social media army” to fight for Thailand.
The campaign is primarily targeting agents in Asia and the Middle East.
“With 40 years in business powering global travel, GTA can help Thailand’s tourism industry welcome back customers from around the world. Although the explosion affected bookings in August and September, by the end of the year we think the Stronger Together campaign will have brought Thailand more visitors than in 2014,” said Daryl Lee, GTA’s regional vice president of sales & marketing for Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa.
“Thanks to the long-standing partnerships we have with the hospitality and travel trade, we have brought together 32 of the destination’s hotels and attractions to drive even stronger awareness that there is no reason to postpone a visit.”
Lee also urged campaign partners Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines, along with other international carriers, to resume and add more flights to Thailand to facilitate the recovery.
Speaking to Travel Daily at the launch event, the TAT’s deputy governor for international marketing, Juthaporn Rerngronasa, said that arrivals to Thailand are “picking up” again, following a decline immediately after the bomb.
While she admitted to a drop of “about 20%” in visitors arrivals between the time of the bomb and the end of August, Ms Juthaporn added that arrival numbers are now “on the rise”. She added that the TAT “firmly believes” it will achieve its full-year arrivals target of 28.8 million visitors in 2015. Thailand recently welcomed its 21millionth arrival on the year.
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