‘BE MY GUEST’ TO BE LAUNCHED AT WORLD TRAVEL MART 2001

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will lead a high-level team of travel & tourism executives to showcase the country’s new products and to launch the colourful new marketing campaign, ‘Be My Guest’, at the World Travel Mart (WTM) in London between 12-15 November 2001.

The ‘Be My Guest’ campaign to be carried out between 2002-2003 aims at boosting awareness of Thailand among international visitors and promoting the country as a value-added destination in the face of growing competition from around the world.

TAT Governor Pradech Phayakvichien commented, “We will use the WTM 2001 as the launch pad for the ‘Be My Guest’ campaign which, for the first time, will involve the personal leadership of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.”

The Prime Minister will be the host and presenter of the ‘Be My Guest’ advertisements in which he will personally invite overseas tour companies and visitors to visit Thailand and experience for themselves the country’s unique hospitality and friendliness.

A consortium of airlines, hotels, tour operators and other private companies has been set up to market a wide variety of special themed packages featuring Thai food, Thai products and handicrafts, honeymoon holidays, MICE events, golfing and diving.

Within Thailand, the campaign will encourage Thai people to be constantly aware of the importance of preserving the natural beauty of the country and being good hosts to visitors. It will also call on them to travel domestically to help minimise the outflow of tourism foreign exchange.

At the WTM, the TAT and Thai Airways International will officially launch the “Be My Guest” campaign on 14 November. This will be supplemented by Bangkok Airways’ launch of its Mekong World Heritage Tour packages which will feature the Thai capital of Bangkok and four UNESCO- designated World Heritage sites -- Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Sukhothai in Thailand and Hue in Viet Nam.

The Thai delegation to the WTM comprises of 49 hotels and 16 tour companies located in a total area of 247.5 sq. m. as part of the ‘Together in Asia’ pavilion with Singapore and Hong Kong.

Dubbed the world’s second biggest travel trade show, the World Travel Mart, now in its 22nd year, is organised by Reed Travel Exhibitions Company at the Earls Court venue in London.

In 2000, the event attracted more than 5,000 tourism-related public and private agencies from 177 countries and territories. These included national tourism organisations, private tour companies, hotels and resorts, airlines, private associations and tourism-related media and journalists. Total trade visitors in 2000 were 26,626.

The first two days of the 2001 Mart will be open only for Meridien Club members (invited senior travel industry buyers), exhibitors and members of press while the third and fourth days will be open to all trade professionals.

Held alongside the trade show are various seminars on information technology, customer relation management and ways to do business with Japanese tourism industry. A number of press conferences and marketing briefings are also held.