Bangkok, Thailand – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Thai AirAsia have announced their readiness to jointly promote travel to Thailand in key ASEAN and South Asian markets by utilising the airline’s increasing regional flight network.
TAT and Thai AirAsia have recently conducted a joint news conference at the TAT Head Office in Bangkok to discuss their plans to work together to increase tourism numbers in Thailand.
According to TAT’s action plan for ASEAN, South Asia, and the South Pacific for the area, Thai AirAsia has established separate marketing tactics for each market, based on its potential.
The ‘Rediscover Thailand’ campaign in Singapore will promote Thai AirAsia’s Singapore-Don Mueang and Singapore-Phuket flights, which will begin 11-24 April 2022 and target Millennials and young couples for travel in May and July. The campaign is projected to result in 3,000 seat sales to Thailand.
In Malaysia, the emphasis will be on leisure group travel, with a ‘Health & Wellness in Amazing Thailand’ promotion offering special prices. Thai AirAsia’s flights to Thailand from Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor Bahru will be marketed. The campaign intends to sell 1,500 seats to Thailand.
For Indonesia, TAT is currently waiting for confirmation of Thai AirAsia’s Jakarta-Don Mueang and Bali-Don Mueang flight schedules.
For Cambodia, Thai AirAsia will open routes from Phnom Penh and Siem Reap to Thailand for a three-month period of May-July 2022, and 1,000 seats are expected to be sold. The focus will be on the FIT group and Millennial family markets, who are mainly interested in health and wellness and medical tourism.
Thai AirAsia’s routes to Thailand from Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang will be promoted to generate tourist traffic from Vietnam. In India, travel to Thailand will be promoted through various media channels and a joint TAT-Thai AirAsia blogger/influencer fam trip is planned, while the airline aims to introduce flights from Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, and Jaipur to increase market opportunities to Thailand from secondary urban areas in that country.
Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor of international marketing for Asia and South Pacific at TAT shared, “Tourism from foreign markets to Thailand in 2022 is ready to improve thanks to, among other things, the easing of entry requirements into the kingdom and the easing of travel restrictions in source markets.”
Petsuwan emphasised, “Another important factor is the flight and seat capacity, and with Thai AirAsia’s plans to rebuild easy and adequate flight accessibility to Thailand, this is a good opportunity to stimulate interest among foreign travellers.”
Santisuk Klongchaiya, chief executive officer at Thai AirAsia, commented, “Thai AirAsia is delighted to provide continued support in the return of foreign tourism to Thailand.
“Beginning in April 2022, we are gradually opening international routes linking the kingdom with key ASEAN and South Asian markets; namely, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Maldives, and India, totalling 18 routes,” Klongchaiya adds.
TAT expects that the third quarter will be a good period for market-driven activities, which will benefit the Thai tourist industry in the second half of this year. According to TAT, in the best-case scenario, 10 million foreign tourists will visit Thailand in 2022, producing 625.8 billion Baht in tourism revenue. ASEAN area source markets are slated to begin traveling in April 2022.