Thailand’s hotels, tour operators and meetings companies need to move their marketing from the national level down to city, language or demographic niche if they are to more successfully reach tourists from India or Russia. That was conclusion of expert speakers addressing the PATA Thailand Chapter seminar in Bangkok on 12 July, called “Tourism Behaviour of the ‘RICHI’ Inbound Markets to Thailand”.
During the event, Professor Philip Pearce of James Cook University in Queensland told attendees, including senior executives from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), to avoid the “sin of over generalisation” and closely observe visitor behaviour in order to create rewarding travel experiences that visitors will talk about when they go home.
“Listen to the stories they tell and don’t just rely on satisfaction indexes,” Prof. Cook said. “Successful marketing now requires the ability to provide an experience economy that is in tune with generational changes, sustainability and new technology.”
He also noted that “techpacker havens” are increasingly important – places where travellers, luxury or budget, can plug in social media appliances, use large screens, Skype with families back home, download new music and service mobile and social devices.
Ravi Bhatia, Director of Indian Host, an India-focused hospitality group in Bangkok, called for Thailand and India to “reconnect” their deep historical and cultural similarities that had become “lost” in recent times.
“The number of Indian tourists visiting Thailand could easily double in two or three years,” he predicted, citing the new direct low-cost aviation that are expected to be launched between the two countries. Bhatia also recommended that Thailand should concentrate on the Indian wedding market and attracting Bollywood filmmakers to the country.
Meanwhile Andrey Snetkov, the Contract & Marketing Manager of Pattaya-based TEZ Tour, which specialises in the Russian market, told attendees that 90% of trips to Thailand were still arranged by Russian travel agents as the online booking and credit card networks in Russia were still not trusted.
He lamented that many Russian travel agents don’t have first-hand experience of Thailand so their recommendations to clients are frequently ill-informed. Fam trips for travel agents are an important way to remedy this, he said.
Snetkov also noted that since the first Russian charter flight to U-Taphao, near Pattaya, in 1991, Russian visitor arrivals to Thailand had grown at a rate of 20-100% per year – a trend he predicted to continue.
Some 600,000 Russians visit Thailand annually, most of them preferring Pattaya for price and variety reasons, he said.
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