TAT plans 'Thainess Year'

TAT governor Thawatchai Arunyik said the campaign would be launched at this year’s World Travel Mart, which is scheduled to take place in London from November 3-6.
 The agency will introduce the campaign and reveal highlights to travel agents and alliances from all over the world.
TAT will promote new gimmicks focused on creative tourism and community-based tourism, as well as promoting seven product clusters such as shopping, health, and natural beauty.
Sugree Sithivanich, deputy governor for marketing communications at TAT, said some highlights of the 2015 campaign would be linked to months of the year. January marks “Hello Thailand”, the Thai-Chinese Celebration and Jazz Festival are in February, there is a World Thai Boxing event in March, the Songkran Festival is in April, and there will be a big fun activity called “Tour de Thailand” in May. More activities are set for the second half of next year.
TAT targets 29 million international visitors next year, up 12.9 per cent from this year’s target, with revenue expected at Bt2.2 trillion (Bt1.4 trillion from the international market and Bt800 billion from the domestic market). The agency hopes revenue from the international market alone will increase by 15.5 per cent from this year’s projection.
This year, TAT lowered its arrival target from 28 million to 25.7 million because of the political problems, while revenue from tourists is expected to end up at Bt1.2 trillion. Domestically, TAT aimed at 135 million trips and income of Bt700 billion.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has been granted a budget of Bt6 billion for the 2015 fiscal year, a 6-per-cent increase from the 2014 budget. The ministry had earlier proposed Bt8 billion. However, it can ask for extra funding if faces an unforeseen crisis.
The budget will be used at several key organisations: TAT, the Sports Authority of Thailand, and the ministry itself.
According to TAT’s marketing department, East Asia will remain the biggest source of tourists next year with 17 million visitors, followed by Europe with about 6.9 million, South Asia with 1.3 million, the Americas with 1.2 million, Oceania 1 million, the Middle East 721,400, and Africa with 195,000 visitors.
Last year, China was the biggest source for Thai tourism with 4.6 million arrivals (a 66.4-per-cent jump from 2012), followed by Malaysia with 3.04 million (up 19.05 per cent), Russia with just under 2 million, Japan with 1.53 million (an 11.84-per-cent increase), South Korea with 1.29 million (up 11.32 per cent), and India with 1.05 million (a 3.71-per-cent increase).
The authority will be running events and activities parallel with major theme of Thainess for the domestic market throughout 2015.