Bangkok, 21 February, 2017 – A number of fans and followers of Thai entertainment superstar Mario Maurer from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines have been invited to Thailand to meet and interact with their celebrity hero, courtesy of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). It is the first such event ever organised by TAT in Thailand itself.
Known officially as “Experience Thailand with Mario Maurer”, the “T-Pop” campaign was launched in 2015 with Mario Maurer, the famous Thai actor, participating in a number of high-profile activities and events in China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Thanks to the huge success of films; such as, ‘Love of Siam’, ‘First Love’ and ‘Pe Mak’ Mario Maurer has a fan following of nearly one million in each of the three ASEAN countries.
Set to continue until March 2017, the TAT campaign was carried out only in China in 2015 and expanded to Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines in 2016. This year, TAT has decided to supplement these events abroad by organising another one in Thailand itself.
The bloggers, media representatives and celebrities invited to Thailand, all of whom were selected by the TAT Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam offices, including a number of fans who won the prizes from TAT’s both online and offline campaigns, will join Mario Maurer on a river cruise along the Chao Phraya River and meet with him via exclusive dinners and interviews.
Ms. Walailak Noypayak, TAT’s Executive Director for the ASEAN, South Asia and South Pacific Region said, “The next generation of potential travellers is going to be young people, especially within Asia. We are happy that Mario Maurer is working with us in promoting tourism to Thailand amongst these new emerging markets.
“The marketing and PR activities are projected to generate several thousand “likes” and “shares”, giving Thailand more opportunity of publicity across blogs and websites, newspaper and magazine articles, and TV and radio,” she added.
Ms. Walailak continued, “Social media networks; such as, “Fans of Mario Maurer” help us target young, affluent travellers who are good English speakers and keen to visit Thailand. By organising this promotional event in Thailand, we will be able to give much more exposure to Thai tourism attractions and our recent Unique Thai Local Experiences campaign.”
Thailand is seeing steady increases in visitors from ASEAN. In 2016, Indonesian visitor arrivals to Thailand totalled 535,625 (up 14.18 per cent), the Philippines 339,486 (up 9.17 per cent), and Vietnam 830,394 (up 10.55 per cent).
“We expect this project will enhance the image of Thai tourism products and services and attract the target groups of high-end visitors and young people, which is in line with the objectives and target of the 2017 marketing plan,” Ms. Walailak said.
