Twenty Japanese media have been flown in to visit Thailand during 20-25 January, 2009, in the first step of a major publicity and promotional campaign designed to reinstate visitor confidence in the extremely important Japanese market.

The fam trip is intended to give the media a chance to see for themselves that Thailand is back to normal.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, Mrs. Phornsiri Manoharn said, “The confidence building and marketing campaigns are designed to reassure Japanese tourists that Thailand remains a safe and attractive destination that is also the world’s best value-for-money brand, as announced last November by the 2008 Country Brand Index (CBI).”

A very important aspect of the confidence rebuilding measures will be the visit to Japan by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva during 4-8 February, 2009. He will lead the Thai delegation comprising of representatives of TAT, Department of Export Promotion (DEP) and Board of Investment (BOI) for the “Thailand Road Show” in Tokyo in order to restore visitor and investor confidence in Thailand and to promote business, investment, and tourism between the two countries.

His visit will also give a major boost to the tourism campaign which is divided into numerous individual activities and projects.

A “Thailand Talk to the World” project involves inviting celebrities from the targetted countries to join international events in Thailand, where they will be interviewed about their impressions, and the programmes will be broadcast and distributed to worldwide media.

Another activity, called “Thailand Briefing by Celebrity”, will see visiting celebrities organise media talks with other celebrities in Japan about their experiences in Thailand.

Also between March and April, a group of Japanese comedians, DJs, commentators, and movie-stars will be invited to promote a “Smile Package” via TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and website.

A “Colourful Thailand” activity will be launched at various Japanese consumer fairs at which executives of leading Japanese tour operators and media will meet with TAT executives to build stronger relationships and promote travel to Thailand.

Mrs Phornsiri said, “We also plan to promote Thailand through Japanese movies. A movie named ‘POOL’ will be shooting in Chiang Mai this year, with the support of TAT.”

¹Japanese investment approved by the BOI since 1970 reached 2 trillion Baht by August 2008, covering slightly over 5,000 projects. Japanese companies have contributed significantly to Thai industrial development in Thailand, especially in sectors like automotive, electrical and electronics, and chemical products.

In 2007, visitor arrivals from Japan totalled 1,248,700 and stayed an average of 7.54 days and spent an average of 4,518.86 Baht person per day (or US$ 130.91) in 2007. This contributed a total of 425 billion Baht (US$12.3 billion) tourism foreign exchange revenue to the Thai economy.

Although most Japanese visitors are mainly in the 35-44 age bracket, the biggest growth has been in the number of elderly retirees.

In 2007, Japan was the largest source of business travellers to Thailand.

Japan is now Thailand’s second largest source market after Malaysia. Between January-July 2008, Thailand attracted 734,388 Japanese visitors, up 3.43% over the same period of 2007.

In recent years, Thailand has become very popular with Japanese independent travellers as well as group tourists visiting the kingdom for the first time. Due to the high level of Japanese investment in Thailand, especially in the motor vehicle sector, Japanese business travellers are also showing an upward trend.

As of January 2009, a total of 127 direct schedule flights are being operated weekly between Thailand and major cities in Japan by Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, United Airlines, and Northwest.

Japanese visitors to Thailand can obtain visa-free entry at all international airports and stay up to 30 days.

¹ http://www.boi.go.th

Contact information:
International Public Relations Division
Tourism Authority of Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2250 5500 ext. 4545-48
Fax: +66 (0) 2253 7419
E-mail: prdiv3@tat.or.th
Web site: www.tatnews.org