TAT engages in several immersive virtual projects to highlight Thailand’s travel potential
At Tourism Authority of Thailand, (TAT) Mumbai, they believe that there is light at the end of every tunnel. Thus, even throughout these challenging past months, their teams have put their best foot forward to continue engaging with their partners and consumers. Cholada Siddhivarn, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and Mumbai feels it is necessary to keep the destination alive and to strengthen their reach and engagement, they have to strategise their activities in groups’ vis-à-vis consumers and trade partners.
COVID-19 and the perils associated with the spread of the virus have caused havoc wrecks to businesses globally and largely, the tourism industry. Since, their course of work involves the exhibition of destinations and experiences to their visitors, the complete seizure in travel movements paralyzed their daily flow of duties.
“The biggest challenge has been to find creative alternate solutions to continue our momentum of work in order to keep Thailand alive as a destination. Every month TAT has worked towards heightening our engagement with our partners and direct consumers through exciting content across emerging digital platforms. Even as we are witnessing the process of unlocking, in the interest of everyone’s safety, we are continuing to brainstorm to find lucrative engagement opportunities through new age media,” says Cholada.
At present, TAT teams are emphasising on bridging the gap between the travel and trade fraternity in India with the private sector in Thailand. The reason for the same is to ensure the seamlessness in communication between the industries based in two countries. Although the borders for international visitors remain closed in Thailand, domestic tourism is thriving for the past couple of months. Thailand as a country is safe and has been receiving global recognition for the government and authorities’ efforts towards controlling the spread of COVID-19. Thus, it is essential to update the partners on the latest development and together prepare a roadmap of restarting the tourism activities in the upcoming months following the announcement of travel relaxation by both the governments.
TAT has been one of the early adapters of the digital technologies facilitating the creation of virtual events that bring together the travel agents, media and direct consumers on a single and immersive platform. India Luxury Virtual Connect (ILVC), held in July 2020 was the first luxury virtual experience in India that bridged the gap between agents in India and the sellers in Thailand. Recently, TAT also participated in India’s first luxury wedding fair, The World of Weddings (TWOW) wherein the team used the opportunity to touch base with the industry leaders and even direct consumers to discuss the future of destination weddings and honeymoons. Further, Cholada mentions, “Moreover, the social media team aggressively shares updates and content to educate the travellers about developments in Thailand. These measures have been effective towards increasing communication with the workforce and other stakeholders in addition to regular calls, one-on-one virtual meetings and press announcements shared with media relevant partners.”
Also, with the consumers, they communicate through their social media platforms with their followers through posts, stories and videos. They conduct online activities as well as contests whenever it’s suitable. They let the consumers show them what activities are on their bucket lists for their future visits in Thailand.
Additionally, the team reached out to different travel communities, bloggers, media outlets to share situation updates and also throwback posts of travel in Thailand. Moreover, their social media team has been working consistently during the lockdown on every platform they have on a daily basis to share contents including VDOs and E-book which match consumers’ interest and to interact with their followers through contest-driven content.
TAT is also busy bridging the communication gap between Indian and Thai partners in order to prepare and be ready for the positive signs of travel resumption from both countries. “Alongside the above measures to strengthen the reach, we also keep exchanging situation updates of India to Thai partners and vice versa. Our SHA or Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration plays a pivotal role to ensure safety and health standards while tourists enjoy their times in Thailand; it has been introduced for quite a while now to both trade partners and consumers through educative sessions. All these activities are to showcase TAT’s readiness that whenever the borders open, Thailand is the destination that both business and leisure travellers can trust to visit,” concludes Cholada.