THAILAND TO HAVE HIGH-IMPACT PRESENCE AT LONDON TRAVEL SHOW

 Thailand will be joining forces with some of its prominent Asian neighbours to maximise the impact of its presence at the World Travel Mart, one of the biggest global travel trade shows, in London between November 13- 16, 2000.

While the 66 Thai sellers will be in the same area as those from Hong Kong and Singapore, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will also be co-operating with the Tourism Ministry of Cambodia to launch a colourful new campaign entitled: “Two Kingdoms, One Destination.”

The co-operative campaigns launched by Thailand with other destinations in Asia and the Greater Mekong Subregion are in line with TAT’s efforts to boost regional tourism and position the Kingdom as a gateway to Indo-China.

Dubbed the world’s second biggest travel trade show after the Internationale Tourismus-Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, the World Travel Mart 2000 will be organised by Reed Travel Exhibitions Company at the Earl’s Court venue in London. The event is expected to attract a total of 4,500 tourism-related public and private agencies from 164 countries world-wide.

These include national tourism organisations, private tour companies, hotels and resorts, airlines, private associations and tourism-related media and journalists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia-Pacific, North America, Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East.

Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand will be in the same joint pavilion under the theme of “Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand: Together in Asia”. This is the third year in which the three popular Asian destinations have shared the same pavilion at the WTM 2000.

Originally launched during the Asian economic crisis to help them save costs by negotiating a better rate with the organisers, the concept has been well-received by many global tour operators who usually package all three destinations and hence find it easy to locate their respective clients in one pavilion.

TAT Governor Pradech Phayakvichien commented, “Of course, the three countries compete with each other for more international visitors, but we also have many areas of co-operation. Global tour operators not only promote our individual tourism products and services, but also have various multi-destination packages linking the three countries.”

In addition, on November 13, Cambodian Tourism Minister Mr. Veng Sereyvuth and Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office and TAT Chairman H.E. Mr. Adisai Bodharamik will jointly launch a new tourism campaign under the slogan “Two Kingdoms, One Destination”.

The campaign will highlight three major tour itineraries covering the two countries. These are Bangkok-Phnom Penh-Siem Reap- Phnom Penh; Bangkok-Siem Reap-Bangkok; and Bangkok-Trat- Koh Kong-Siem Reap-Koh Kong-Bangkok.
“We are encouraging direct connections by air, overland and cruise between the two Kingdoms and are quite optimistic that world markets will respond enthusiastically to such fabulous new touring options,” added the TAT Chairman.
TAT will lead a total of 66 Thai hospitality and tourism-related public and private organisations to showcase their new tourism products and services.


A total of 34 2x2-sq.m. booths have been reserved for Thai tourism firms and agencies including 52 hotels, 12 tour companies, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and Thai Hotels Association.

The Thai marketing theme will remain the same, “Amazing Thailand”, but will now focus more specifically on the many niche- market tourism products such as Thai cuisine, health, spas, golf, ecotourism and the meetings/exhibitions sector.
The first two days of the Mart will be open only for registered exhibitors/sellers, buyers and media while the third and fourth days will be open to the general public. Alongside the exhibition, various seminars and press conferences will be organised on such topics as information technology, incentive travel and environmental issues.

At the 1999 event, Thailand launched the “Amazing Thailand 2000” and “Bangkok 2000: City of Culture” and highlighted various new tourism products including ecotourism, soft adventure, health and spa holiday and theme parks.
TAT’s information counter was visited by an average of 100-250 individual visitors per day. Various major tour companies in the UK showed considerable interest in promoting Thailand as one of their hottest-selling destinations.