It is an initiative of Tourism Authority of Thailand to boost footfall
Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, deputy governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand. (Image: DC)
With the no-visa status for Indians, as also permission to stay in the country for 60 days, the Indian tourist numbers to Thailand have risen dramatically. In order to further whip up the market, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans to hold a series of road shows in big and small cities of India next month. “We plan to do a marketing promotion throughout PAN India, not only in major cities but the secondary cities. Therefore, we’ve decided to organise road shows in Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad,” said Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, deputy governor for international marketing (Asia and south Pacific), at his office in Bangkok.
The dates are as follows: Lucknow August 21, Chandigarh August 23, Bengaluru August 26 and Ahmedabad August 28. According to him, the top five source cities from where there are maximum Indian tourists to Thailand are New Delhi (24.03 per cent share), Mumbai (20.31 per cent), Cochin (7.79 per cent), Chennai (7.55 per cent) and Hyderabad (6.67 per cent). He describes the Indian market as “big, varied, challenging, and one of the top in South
Asia.”
Chattan should know, as he headed the TAT office in India between 2008 and 2011. But while Indian tourists to Thailand amounted to only one million at that time, he’s happy that this year, TAT is targeting two million Indian tourists. The TAT deputy governor stated that every segment of the Indian market is important, and TAT would be focusing on all of them: Leisure, corporate, wedding, FITs.
“There are also small groups of friends and family (around 50 people) who come to Thailand to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and we will target this segment, too,” he stated, adding that “apart from these, we are also focusing on millennials and incentive segments, to help boost Thailand’s tourism target”.
According to the deputy governor, the ever-increasing growth of the Indian tourist market to Thailand is due to the increased connectivity between the two countries. At the moment there are at least eight international airlines flying between the two countries. One of the newest is Lion Air which would soon fly between Bangkok and Ahmedabad four times a week.
Chattan, a dynamic and articulate tourism professional who worked at the TAT foreign offices in India and Australia, retires this year, after a nearly four-decade career. “This is a people-based industry, and I learnt to be a part of that society,” he stated simply. As for the future, the tourism professional stated with a smile that he probably would start travelling for pleasure, including to many places in India that he had not found time to visit.
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