TAT pushes domestic travel to cushion Middle East fallout

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is joining forces with the private sector to set up a war room to manage the impact of the Middle East crisis, while also preparing to propose the revival of a buy-one-get-one campaign to stimulate foreign arrivals. Under the scheme, international tourists who purchase tickets to Thailand would receive domestic flight tickets from the government. At the same time, TAT is pushing domestic tourism alongside the Let's go halves Plus programme to encourage Thais to travel within the country.

Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said TAT is preparing measures to deal with the tourism impact of the unrest in the Middle East by establishing a special task force, or war room, to monitor and manage the crisis closely.

The task force will develop a Tourism Intelligence Dashboard to track key data, including flights, oil prices, operating costs, load factors, airline seat management and market sentiment, all of which affect the tourism industry.

TAT is also preparing economic contingency plans for a worst-case scenario if the Middle East situation drags on, including possible soft-loan measures to support tourism operators.

In addition, TAT has already held discussions with Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) on reallocating flight slots returned by some airlines to other carriers that want to operate direct services to Thailand.

“We are trying to negotiate with airlines to use Thailand, or Suvarnabhumi Airport, as a transit hub replacing the Middle East for flights arriving from Europe, in order to attract tourists and enable Thailand to compete with other aviation hubs such as Shanghai,” she said.

To offset the loss of some markets, TAT will accelerate efforts to rebalance its portfolio towards replacement markets, focusing on short-haul destinations and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), southern China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

The agency will use a two-way tourism marketing approach, or win-win strategy, by working with partner countries to encourage travel flows in both directions.

TAT also plans to use the remaining central budget under the Thailand Summer Blast scheme, which supports inbound flights to Thailand, to back airlines and promote both major and secondary cities.

It will also revive the “buy one, get one” campaign — buy an overseas tour and receive a domestic trip — and submit the proposal to the Cabinet for consideration once again.

For the domestic market, TAT is preparing to discuss with the private sector ways to link tourism support to the government’s Let's go halves Plus programme, with the aim of ensuring that the “Plus” benefits directly support the service and tourism sectors during this period.

Its communications strategy will focus on three main areas: providing essential information that tourists need to know, reinforcing Thailand’s image as a safe destination, and promoting market-stimulation campaigns and events.

“From our market sentiment monitoring, we have found that key markets such as the UK have been barely affected. Travellers still want to visit and view Thailand as a safe country. If we have enough flight slots to support them, these tourists are ready to travel immediately,” Thapanee said.