Thailand targets New Zealand and Australia with Roadshow

The Thai tourism industry is to head for Australia and New Zealand for a marketing roadshow between June 3-10, 2003. The two countries have now been targeted as potential growth markets under the revised marketing plan for 2003.

TAT is co-operating with the Thai Hotels Association (THA), the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) and THAI Airways International (TG) to organise the roadshow which will start on June 3 in Auckland, New Zealand, then move to Sydney on June 5 and to Perth on June 10.

The roadshow is designed to catch the uptrend in traffic that usually begins in July, a winter month in the southern hemisphere. Monthly arrivals from Australia and New Zealand pick up during those months and remain fairly steady for the following six months until the summer school holidays in the southern hemisphere are over.

“Travellers from Australia and New Zealand are very important because they help top up arrivals during what is traditionally the low season,” said the TAT Governor, Mrs. Juthamas Siriwan. “They also have an average length of stay of around nine days, which is very good for that period and higher than the overall average length of stay of around eight days in 2002.”

In 2002, arrivals from both countries were affected by the impact of 9/11, general economic conditions and the reduction in airline capacity. Arrivals from Australia totalled 355,529, a decline of 2.25% while those from New Zealand totalled 64,771, an increase of 5.85% over 2001.

However, there are still growth opportunities within specific customer segments.

For example, Australian visitors aged 65+ rose by 6.02% in 2002, while from New Zealand, arrivals of children under 15 rose 34.08% and those aged 15-24 by 11.12%. This also led to distinct increases in both first-time visitors and group tourists, as families and mature-market travellers visiting any country for the first time prefer to travel as part of a group.

“We will be explaining all these details to the travel trade in Australia,” said Mrs Juthamas. “Even though the overall number of visitors from both markets may be down, people are still travelling. It is important to identify the correct trends within those numbers so that the trade knows whom to target.”

She said Thailand will support wholesalers with tactical advertising campaigns featuring special packages and special offers to motivate consumers to make a quick decision to travel to Thailand.

In each of the cities, the Thai tourism delegation will meet with local tour  wholesalers for a market briefing and product presentation, followed by a table-top business discussion session and cocktail reception.

The roadshow is open to a maximum of 20 companies. Applications are being invited on a first-come-first-served basis. The fee is 15,000 Baht per company and the deadline for submission of the application is May 15, 2003.