Bangkok, Thailand, February 15, 2022 / TRAVELINDEX / The Tourism Authority of Thailand is moving forward with its goal to revitalise and transform Thai tourism, with the ‘Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters’ campaign, and formulating a DASH model to help revive the tourism sector and the Thai economy overall.
The Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters campaign was initially introduced globally at the World Travel Market in London, in line with the country’s quarantine-free reopening to international travellers from 1 November, 2021.
Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, said, “With the Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters, TAT envisions change towards stronger and sustainable, more responsible, more digital, and more inclusive tourism growth, by leveraging on Thailand’s 5F, 4M soft-power foundations, which are Food, Film, Fashion, Festival, Fight, Music, Museum, Master, And Meta. To achieve this, TAT has formulated a ‘DASH’ model to set the entire organisation towards the single goal of transforming the tourism sector.”
D – Domestic travel: The model places emphasis on both tourists and operators in the tourism industry;
A – Accelerate Demand: The model seeks to stimulate qualitative demand, build trust, and a good image by placing focus on tourists’ safety, targeting high-income segments, and delivering impressively different and valuable experiences;
S – Shape Supply: The model looks set to elevate the tourism ecosystem to quality and sustainability based on responsible tourism and digital tourism for all parties to benefit together, and resulting in sustainable income distribution to each sector;
H – Healing Thai Economy: The model focuses on helping to revive the Thai economy through tourism with the country’s reopening to ensure a fast recovery and strong, sustainable growth.
Mr. Yuthasak said, “With the DASH model in place, TAT is placing greater emphasis on domestic tourism. For international tourism, TAT is introducing a new ‘Amazing Thailand Workplace Paradise’ project, with the aim to make Thailand the World’s No. 1 Remote Workers Friendly Destination.”
The Amazing Thailand Workplace Paradise project will focus on remote workers from long-haul international markets, in response to a growing trend in light of the COVID-19 pandemic whereby people work remotely and enjoy a vacation.
For short-haul international markets, TAT will leverage on the TEST & GO entry scheme, highlighting ‘New Chapters, New Opportunity’ offerings. New segments will be targeted; such as; bleisure (business and leisure), students, digital nomads, and soft adventure. New areas will be set to attract quality segments from potential markets like Mongolia and South Korea (Busan), and to seek new partners in existing markets. New infrastructure will be promoted; such as, new transport routes – especially the high-speed rail linking Kunming and Lao PDR, which can connect to Thailand’s Nong Khai Province. New way will focus on inspiring millennials to experience Thailand in an environmentally-friendly and sustainable way.
Within the country, TAT will highlight a 3-Ex concept – Experience, Expectation, and Extraordinary – to inspire domestic travel with 3 ideas for tourism products and services; namely, Nature to Keep, Food to Explore, and Thainess to Discover with five colours representing the regions of Thailand.
Crimson for the Central Region – Chic Central; emerald for the Eastern Region – East at Ease; navy for the Northern Region – North Nostalgia; ivory for the Northeastern Region – Isan in Love, and silver for the Southern Region – Savoury South.
In line with the DASH model and tourism marketing strategies, TAT will place emphasis on creating innovative travel experiences for the targeted segments – workcation and staycation, wellness, sports, and responsible tourism. Aimed at both local and international tourists, there will be a plethora of tourism offerings designed in response to a growing trend, including astronomical tourism, water tourism, community tourism – highlighting a happy model for both the tourists and the communities, and culinary tourism – focusing on health and organic lifestyle.
Mr. Yuthasak said, “TAT will continue to communicate with both local and international tourists through the long-standing ‘Amazing Thailand’ branding. A dedicated campaign will be used for the local market to inspire domestic travel. For the international market, TAT will use the ‘Amazing New Chapters’ campaign to promote Thai cultural values, under the ‘from A to Z Amazing Thailand has it all’ concept to inspire travellers from around the world to once again visit Thailand.”
Last but not least, TAT will be elevating its innovation approach with a plan to introduce a TAT Amazing Influencer, using the virtual character technology to create a personalised experience in the Metaverse virtual world. TAT is also planning to promote Thai tourism through digital art with a TAT NFTs starting with local wisdom products. In addition, TAT will enhance marketing and digital knowledge by creating a hybrid work system allowing staff to work remotely effectively in line with the plan to promote Thailand as a remote workers friendly destination. To maintain TAT’s positioning as a high-performance organisation, emphasis will continue to be a place on the proper management of resources and waste both internally and externally.
With Thai tourism transformation under this year’s strategic plans, TAT expects to generate a total revenue of 1.28 trillion Baht with 656 billion Baht from the domestic market (160 million trips) and 625 billion Baht from the international market (10 million tourists). The average expenditure for domestic tourists is estimated at 4,100 Baht per person, and for foreign tourists at 62,580 Baht per person.