For mutual benefits

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is intensifying promotions in Vietnam to deal with a decline in Vietnamese tourist arrivals. TAT deputy governor for international marketing, Santichai Euachongprasit, told the Daily about the TAT plan during his trip to Vietnam from July 27 to 31.
Excerpts:
What do you think about a drop in Vietnamese visitors to Thailand so far this year after strong growth in previous years?
- It’s is true that we see a slight decline in the number of Vietnamese tourist arrivals in the year to date. This is a common trend for the global tourism industry that has been hard hit by the global economic turmoil and the impact of influenza A (H1N1). However, arrivals from Vietnam have been faring much better if compared with a 20% drop in international visitors to Thailand in the first half of this year. You see, we earlier aimed for some 16 million international travelers in Thailand this year but have to revise down to 14 million and then 13 million when considering the situation for this year. Last year we welcomed around 14.5 million international visitors. Despite a host of challenges ahead of us, we are optimistic about the Vietnamese market, and expecting that the number of Vietnamese travelers in Thailand would be back to growth from the fourth quarter of this year.
Could you clarify the fundamentals you count on for the recovery from the fourth quarter of this year?
- Like other economies in Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese economy is progressing positively a lot for the time being. I believe ASEAN economies are those that recover first from the impact of the global turmoil. We understand Vietnam and that distance is one of important factors for people to weigh before making decisions, particularly the quick ones on holidaying in an overseas country. Therefore, Thailand is certainly one destination that Vietnamese think of and choose as Thailand is near Vietnam. Besides promotions and marketing, we have launched short tours of about 72 hours that we think are suitable for people from Vietnam and other nations to visit Thailand on weekends. These tours have competitive prices and added values, as they also include tickets for travel by sky-train and recreational shows. In short, we are carrying out tactical promotion campaigns to stimulate the Vietnamese market and other regional markets.
How can Thailand and Vietnam cooperate in attracting international travelers in the current difficult time?
- This point is very important for the mutual benefits of our tourism industries in the current situation. We have plans to work with Vietnam’s tourism authorities to design packages comprising of attractions in both countries and jointly promote these packages. Such tours combine well-established and new destinations of two countries such as Vietnam’s Dalat for travelers from long-haul markets. We should have the products to meet the needs of travelers who want to visit more countries in Southeast Asia than just Thailand after long flights. Equally importantly, both Vietnam and Thailand need to have separate strategies to promote their own attractions.
So, do you mean that Thailand and Vietnam are still competitors in terms of attracting international tourists?
- We need to compete as companions and in cooperation so that we move forwards together with better tourism products and services because competition pushes us to make improvements. This year we plan to spend 800 million baht (around US$23 million) for overseas marketing and another 300 million baht for domestic promotions as the domestic market is also important to us.