Pact signed to spur travel between Japan and Thailand
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The Thai Travel Agents Association yesterday singed a three-year agreement with Japan's private and public sectors to boost two-way tourist traffic in the wake of natural disasters in both countries, and to prepare for further crises in the future.
It was the first long-term agreement between the TTAA on the one hand and the Japan Association of Travel Agents and the Japan National Tourism Organisation on the other after the flood crisis in Thailand and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March.
The crisis in Japan hurt the inbound and outbound travel business in both countries, as did the recent floods that ravaged nearly half of Thailand. The TTAA and key tourism bodies in Japan believe that traffic between the two countries will slowly rebound, but could take months to get back to normal.
However, they want to see faster recovery than that, and all parties involved have outlined strategies for a three-year plan to deal with the chance of further crises.
Charoen Wangananont, president of the TTAA, said the two countries would undertake more promotions and marketing events to encourage two-way travel.
He said Japan had agreed to increase charter flights from second-tier cities such as Fukuoka to Thailand all year around. This would help increase the number of Japanese visiting Thailand after the latest crisis.
The TTAA hopes to increase the number of visitors from Japan from the projected 1.1 million this year to 1.5 million annually over the next three years.
“One of the marketing strategies is not to increase the cost of packages for Japanese,” he said.
Meanwhile, the TTAA will ask the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok to ease visa regulations for Thai tourists by allowing multiple visits so visa holders can travel to Japan more often.
The TTAA and Japan aim to increase the number of Thai tourists by 17 per cent per year over the next three years. Nearly 400,000 Thais are expected to travel to Japan this year. Charoen said his association would work with the private and public sectors in other key markets such as China and India to increase visitors after the flooding.
“The TTAA will soon meet with Thai officials to ask for a waiver of visa fees for Chinese. This would help attract more visitors. It will also promote more destinations in India to Thais as well as try to boost the number of Indian tourists into the Kingdom,” he said.
