24 REGION ADVERTORIAL
24 REGION ADVERTORIAL ASIA Yuthasak Supasorn Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Since 2015, Yuthasak Supasorn has been leading the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The Governor was previously executive vice president and chief financial officer of Thailand’s MCOT, a state broadcaster, bringing fresh marketing ideas that he highlights for ITB Berlin News. We asked him how tourism has been recovering in Thailand after the events of recent years. In 2016, international tourist arrivals to Thailand totalled 32.58 million, up 8.91% over 2015. International tourism revenue also exceeded the target to 43.9 billion up by 13%. This number shows that despite various incidents, Thailand’s tourism is always bouncing back rapidly. This year, we are targeting 48.2 billion in international tourism income. D e s t i n a t i o n ” . We t h e n develop a wide range of tailor-made quality products emphasising “Unique Thai Local Experiences”. They fit travellers’ particular interest of travellers and niche markets, especially high-end tourists. We now promote Thailand in many European secondary cities and create new opportunities to intensify work with the travel industry. Promoting Thailand as a Quality Leisure Destination in order to enhance the linkages with our neighbours. This will be followed by the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2018 to be held also in Chiang Mai in January 2018. How do airlines integrate your marketing efforts? We work closely with airlines. We signed a landmark agreement with Etihad Airways to promote Thailand in priority markets including the UAE, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt and Kuwait. With Taiwan-based Eva Airways, we formalised a MoU for joint promotion towards the USA and Canada. We also collaborate with Bangkok Airways as it serves many secondary destinations such as Chiang Rai, Lampang, Sukhothai or Trat. TAT IS DEVELOPING A WIDE RANGE OF TAILOR- MADE QUALITY PRODUCTS EMPHASISING “UNIQUE THAI LOCAL EXPERIENCES” How are your source markets evolving? China is now our leading source market with 8.87 million visitors in 2016, up 8.72%. Other top markets include Malaysia (3.53 million visitors, +3.11%), South Korea (1.47 million visitors, +7.46%) and Japan (1.43 million visitors, +4.14%). Cross border arrivals are also up, with double-digit growth from Lao PDR, Cambodia and Myanmar. Overall, Asia- Pacific is now our biggest and fastest growing market. This will have major implications for the way we do marketing. In Europe, Russia recovered strongly with arrivals of 1.06 million in 2016, up 19.8%. Please tell us more about your marketing efforts and how you work with the travel trade. TAT is positioning Thailand a s a “ Q u a l i t y L e i s u r e To introduce visitors to our “Unique Thai Local Experiences”, we recently set up the “LINK Project”, which mainly looks at strengthening l o c a l c o m m u n i t i e s ’ c a p a b i l i t i e s t o a t t r a c t international travellers. TAT’s overseas and domestic offices work together on promoting and expanding local tourism. Thailand will attract many international events in 2017. Among them are the World Travel and Tourism Global Summit 2017 on 26- 27 April, 2017 in Bangkok or the Destination Wedding Planners Congress held on 2-4 May, 2017 in Phuket. We also work on marketing initiatives with ASEAN countries. Thailand Travel Mart Plus (TTM+) between 14-16 June, 2017, in Chiang Mai will integrate Greater Mekong Subregion countries How important is ITB Berlin as a platform for Thailand on the international tourism stage? We are participating in ITB Berlin to enhance the awareness of Thailand as a “Preferred destination”, aiming to offer quality products together with “ U n i q u e T h a i L o c a l Experiences”. We are here to update the trade with our theme “Discover Amazing Stories in Amazing Thailand” and help them to understand what makes us unique. The European market remains very important to us because it has the highest length of stay, more than twice the overall average. This explains why Thailand has been exhibiting at ITB Berlin in the last 43 years Hall 26.b / Stand 221 ITB BERLIN NEWS • Thursday 9 th March 2017 www.itb-berlin-news.com
ASIA REGION 25 Targeting Malaysia’s 2020 Vision Malaysia is seeing a rebound in tourism after some rocky times in 2015, and appears to be back on track for the nation’s announced goals for the year 2020. We asked YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz - Minister of Tourism and Culture of Malaysia to tell us more about his targets, and how he hopes to achieve them. This year, our target is to reach 31.8 million tourist arrivals and RM118 billion in tourist receipts. Our long-term target is to achieve 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion (Euro 37.1 billion) in receipts by the year 2020, based on the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan. This year being designated the “International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development” by UNWTO, Tourism Malaysia will be laying special emphasis on promoting our UNESCO h e r i t a g e s i t e s a n d homestay programmes. Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, M e l a k a a n d G e o r g e Town cities and the archaeological heritage of the Lenggong Valley are four of the UNESCO designated World Heritage sites in Malaysia. In addition, 2017 is the Visit Perak, Visit Pahang and Visit Terengganu y e a r . T h e s e t h r e e states in Malaysia are s p e c i a l b e c a u s e o f their combination of culture, heritage, nature, adventure, hill resorts, islands, rivers and lakes, which I believe will be of interest to this market. The year 2017 has also been designated as the Visit ASEAN Year which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the South East Asian nations’ association. As part of the celebrations, the ASEAN community, which includes Malaysia, has worked together to promote the entire region for intra-regional and inter-regional travel. Many m u l t i p l e - d e s t i n a t i o n s packages have been developed and promoted to encourage tourists to explore the ASEAN region through nature, shopping, adventure packages and more. 2017 IS THE VISIT PERAK, VISIT PAHANG AND VISIT TERENGGANU YEAR You have spoken about the importance of culture and nature. What is being done to preserve these assets? The Malaysian Homestay Experience Programme, which won the Ulysses Award for Innovation in Public Policy and Governance by the UNWTO in 2012, is a classic example of a rural ecotourism program, which helps to preserve our cultural and natural assets. The Homestay program underlines the importance o f c o n s e r v a t i o n a n d e n v i r o n m e n t a l management. The Tree Planting Program at Homestays is a good example, where visitors are given the opportunity to plant their own tree to mark their visit to that p a r t i c u l a r H o m e s t a y. It also supports the idea of preserving the environment and further beautifying the landscape of the Homestays. To date, more than 16,733 trees have been planted by the homestay visitors. How about the flight connections to Malaysia? Would you say that you are getting better c o n n e c t e d w i t h a l l E u r o p e a n c o u n t r i e s ? Are you planning to extend the direct flight connections? If yes, with which countries? Malaysia is well-connected via air operations from almost all international airlines serving main cities in European countries. Some of the international airlines that connect Europe with Malaysia are: Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Thai Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Oman Air, as well as Malaysian Airlines from London. YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz Minister of Tourism and Culture of Malaysia We also have a special partnership agreement with Singapore Airlines, which was launched during the last ITB. The goal of this collaboration is to run a joint promotional campaign for 2 years to promote flights and packages to Malaysia. As for Malaysia Airlines’ direct flights, we are confident that the airline will resume flying to Europe markets when they are ready. What is your message to the world’s TOs and TAs present at ITB Berlin? We are happy to represent Malaysia in such a huge travel fair. We hope that our presence here will show that Malaysia is a beautiful and culturally diverse country with many fascinating tourist attractions. We are a peaceful nation and we welcome tourists from all over the world to enjoy an affordable and value-for-money holiday in Malaysia Hall 26a / Stand 121 ITB BERLIN NEWS • Thursday 9 th March 2017
