TAT teaming up with major airlines to promote Thailand

   
The agency plans to sign similar pacts with Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways this quarter and has set aside Bt30 million for each of these year-long agreements. 
Tanes Petsuwan, TAT’s deputy governor for international marketing in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, said the agency was cooperating with major airlines because it wanted to widen the market and boost arrivals from places that require more than six hours’ flying time. 
Top long-haul markets for Thailand are Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa.
“Since few Thai airlines have direct flights to long-haul markets, we want to use major international airlines to lure more visitors by promoting Thailand on their networks,” Tanes explained. 
Last year, long-haul markets contributed 30 per cent of Thailand’s 32 million international arrivals and generated 35 per cent of the overall tourism income. “We see a bright future in some countries like Russia, where many high spenders continue travelling to Thailand. Also, the US economy is rebounding, and that will create opportunities for Thailand,” he said. 
TAT yesterday signed an MoU with Taiwanese airline EVA Airways Corporation to launch joint promotional strategies that will boost the number of visitors from the US and Canada. 
TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said: “This MoU will help us target tourists from the Americas – one of our most important and fastest-growing markets. EVA Air is a vital link between North America and Asia, as there are currently no direct flights from the US and Canada to Thailand. By working with EVA Air on tourism initiatives, we can help get word out about Thailand’s attractions and boost visitor numbers even more in 2017 and beyond.”
Now that the MoU has been signed, a project-implementation workshop involving EVA Air representatives and TAT directors will be held for them to discuss their marketing collaboration for long- and short-haul markets. 
EVA Air currently operates 80 flights per week between North America and Taiwan, including three daily from Los Angeles, two daily from San Francisco, 10 flights a week from Seattle, two daily flights from New York and five flights a week each from Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. 
The airline also offers a daily service from Houston and four flights per week from Chicago in the US.
Passengers can then connect to Bangkok on any of EVA’s 26 flights per week on the Taipei-Bangkok route, which was recently increased from 17 a week to meet the demand of long-haul passengers. Of the total passengers taking EVA Air on the Taipei-Bangkok route, about 50 per cent are from North America and Europe.
Golden Kou, spokesman for EVA Air, said the MoU marked another significant cooperation between TAT and the airline to promote Thailand as a short-haul destination for Taiwanese tourists and a long-haul destination for travellers from North America.
TAT plans to open a new office in Canada to offer services to travellers heading to the Kingdom and is eyeing new office space in Sao Paolo, Brazil. 
In 2015, Thailand attracted 827,110 tourists from the US, marking a 12.61-per-cent rise from the previous year. Of the total, 50.44 per cent came from the west coast and 49.56 flew in from the east coast. Tourists from this part of the world spent about US$146.63 (Bt5,245) per day and spent around 13.38 days in the Kingdom.
From January to November 2016, there were 1,236,694 arrivals from the Americas, marking an increase of 13.36 per cent over 2015. Of these, 859,838 came from the US, and 216,768 came from Canada.