Bangkok, 5 February, 2016 – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is spearheading both its global marketing initiatives, including the redesigned Amazing Thailand campaign’s logo, to boost the positive image of Thailand, positioning the country as a quality leisure destination, and domestic marketing initiatives; such as, the creation of regional value proposition to entice Thai and foreign tourists to discover the many amazing stories in Thailand.
In 2015, the Thai tourism industry hit the highest record in its history, receiving tourism revenue of 1.4 trillion Baht or a 23 per cent year-on-year increase, and attracting 29.8 million international tourist arrivals or an increase of 20 per cent over 2014. The number of domestic trips reached 138.8 million, generating revenue of 790 billion Baht.
Building on this success, TAT announced the repositioning for the country’s tourism branding, replacing it with a new strategy to focus on promoting the kingdom as a “Quality Leisure Destination through Thainess” to enhance traveller expenditure, the average length of stay, and the overall quality of the traveller experience rather than the number of tourists.
Dr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor said, “As the Thai government’s official body that has been promoting Thailand as a tourist destination to international and local travellers while supporting the development of the country’s tourism industry for more than 55 years, it’s now high time for us to realign our strategy. Our target for the next 4-5 years will be in line with the government’s policy that highlights the importance of tourism in a 360-degree dimension for economic development, job creation, income distribution, and the role in enhancing social integration and preserving the environment.”
A core part of TAT’s global marketing initiatives is Amazing Thailand, a well-established integrated campaign that puts the spotlight on Thailand’s plethora of charming attractions, diversity of destinations, the uniqueness of Thai culture and traditions, the simple ways of life, and the warm, welcoming friendliness of the Thai people.
To enhance the appeal of Thailand as a quality leisure destination, TAT has launched a new logo of the Amazing Thailand campaign, incorporating the attraction and charm of that most well-known characteristic of Thailand – the Smile. Ornate details of the traditional Thai Kanok pattern have been adjusted to create the ‘Smile’ symbol. It also represents friendship, enjoyment, happiness and hospitality. The letter ‘A’ in the word ‘Thailand’ has been re-designed to look like a pair of smiling eyes, which, when accompanied with the ‘Smile’ symbol, perfectly form a person’s smiling face. The colour schemes have also been specifically chosen to underpin the image of softness.
Through the new Amazing Thailand campaign’s logo, TAT has outlined strategies to strengthen the appeal of Thailand as a quality leisure destination. Among the initiatives is a content marketing tactic to entice travellers to discover the many amazing stories in Thailand and gain memorable experience.
Another key initiative is to better balance the country’s domestic and international tourism sectors. This year, TAT announced its intention to do more to boost domestic tourism by encouraging Thai people to travel within Thailand. Local tourism destinations will be developed to inject income to the local economy. This is aiming to support the government policy of creating the “Strength from Within.”
TAT has created a value proposition for each of the five major regions – North, South, East, Central, and Northeast – across the nation to boost domestic tourism. The regional proposition are the North: A Million Inspirations, A Thousand Charms; the Northeast: Spicy Isan; the Central: Happiness Within Reach; the East: Simply Colorful, and the South: Wonderful Hideaway.
Under this concept, the ideas underline the outstanding assets of each region including the individual culture and way of life together with the unique experiences to offer tourists. This would shape the new dimension towards domestic tourism and inspire local tourists to explore the new journey or revisit those destinations with changing experiences. Also, foreign travellers are invited to embark on this journey and venture into this diversity of fascination.
For 2016, with the plan to focus less on the number of visitor arrivals and more on attracting quality tourists, TAT is targeting 2.4 trillion Baht in revenue. Of the total, 1.5 trillion Baht will come from international markets and 850 billion Baht from domestic travel.
