The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) East Asia Region is working on a range of activities to keep Thailand top-of-mind with the travel industry professionals and travelers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
China
The TAT East Asia Region partnered with China’s largest travel platform, Mafengwo, to promote Thailand as a destination for young Chinese millennials. It is also being proactive on various platforms, including WeChat, Weibo, and TikTok, inviting users to join online activities that have included Muay Thai, Thai food cooking classes, Krathong making demonstrations, and more that have generated tens of millions of views. This has helped rank TATs offices in China as the most popular NTO on both WeChat and Weibo.
TAT also cooperated with China’s travel agency on live-streaming a presale of wedding and honeymoon packages on Douyin, which successfully sold 2,009 packages.
To commemorate Ctrip’s 21st anniversary on 28 October, 2020, TAT joined in the activity to sell advance tickets on Sichuan Airlines’ Chengdu-Bangkok routes that successfully sold 205 tickets.
To maintain relationships with China’s travel industry professionals, TAT organized a B2B online event linking 31 tourism operators in Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket with 106 travel agents in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Hong Kong
TAT launched the ‘Until We Meet Again’ video on YouTube gaining 1.2 million impressions. It also worked with veteran KOL Roger Wu producing nine episodes on Thailand’s tourism, each repeatedly getting similar questions, “When can we visit Thailand again?”
The online presale promotion Book Now, Travel Later activity in Hong Kong invited 12 leading airlines, hotels, and spas to participate in the Travelpop Nomadic Market virtual event with sales also available on Facebook Travelpop and Flyday, as well as the Digital Panel Network 19 and MTR Full Network, attracting two million viewers.
In addition, TAT is working with CTL promoting Happy Quarantine packages for business travelers and families that need to travel to Thailand during the current time.
Japan
Japanese love elephants, so TAT invited them to create video clips of elephants and post them on Instagram or TikTok, using the song ‘Chang’ recomposed in Thai and Japanese by Thai artist Stamp Apiwat. Winners will get a package tour to visit the elephant care centre in Kanchanaburi to broaden one’s perspective about Thai elephant conservation.
TAT also leveraged the popularity of the Y-Series or Thailand’s BL series by creating a community for people who like this series on Twitter, especially to follow filming locations. This resulted in a 45% increase in followers to 5,291 with 824,875 impressions plus 6,570 retweets (excluding likes) and hundreds of thousands of engagement.
In addition, TAT tapped into the LGBT market in Japan with the Amazing Thailand banner prominently featured at the 5th Kyushu Rainbow Pride 2020 in Fukuoka in November, including the online edition, which attracted hundreds of thousands of participants. The online banner was also linked with the ‘Book Now, Travel Later’ promotion that resulted in almost 10,000 package bookings.
On B2C, TAT partnered with four of Japan’s largest tour operators, HIS, JTB, Meitetsu World Travel and NOE Sky Tour, promoting flexible deals on repatriation and semi-commercial flights. This targeted business travelers and long-stay tourists using direct sales on an online platform.
South Korea
TAT and Team Thailand invited chefs from the Thai Select-certified Thai restaurants, together with famous Korean KOL Hong Seok Cheon, to conduct online Thai cooking classes under the ‘Aroi Jung’ theme. This proved very successful in capturing the hearts and minds of Koreans who love Thai food.
South Korean multinational girl group (G) I-DLE, with a Thai-born member Minnie, is currently working with TAT to launch a stylish promotional video clip filmed in South Korea with the key focus on Thai food.
B2B activities have been expanded with the launch of the www.againthailand.com website to create direct buyer-seller business negotiations. The new website features 200 tourism operators in Thailand, including hotels, spas, car rentals and golf courses. It is linked with the TAT Seoul Office’s primary website www.visitthailand.or.kr., which some 2,637 travel agents in South Korea are members.
Taiwan
TAT launched ‘Thailand I Miss You’ project by inviting two of Taiwan’s famous KOLs, Ms. Amijan and Mr. Eric, to create video clips about Thailand. Shown in popular convenience stores and on social media, the clips have so far generated almost seven million views. Meanwhile, multi-segmented sales partners in the business, family, and health-conscious niche groups have combined sales of almost 300 bookings via the online presale promotion “Book Now, Travel Later”.
