TAT banks on 'budget travel' campaign for domestic boost

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TAT banks on 'budget travel' campaign for domestic boost
By SUCHAT SRITAMA
THE NATION
Published on November 24, 2010

BANGKOK: -- The Tourism Authority of Thailand is hopeful of livening up the tourism industry over the remainder of the year with a new campaign called "Budget Travel".

The campaign is an effort to boost domestic travel to 91 million trips over the full year.

Prakit Piriyakiet, TAT's deputy governor for marketing communications, yesterday said the campaign would boost travel by locals, particularly young people of working age, around the provinces, including recently flooded areas.

Hotels, resorts and travel companies are offering special prices to tempt customers to travel within the country this month and next.

Earlier, the TAT announced it would focus on large groups travelling by coach in order to help operators in the provinces.

It also announced 10 short-term measures to help restore tourism in Hat Yai and other parts of the South following the flooding.

The authority hopes these measures will enable it to reach this year's target of 91 million domestic trips.

As part of its campaign to boost the attractiveness of domestic destinations, the TAT together with Krungthai Card (KTC), Krungthep Turakij newspaper and MasterCard launched a campaign to find the country's best boutique hotels.

The first year's results of "Thailand Boutique Awards 2010" were announced on Monday. Forty-eight awards were presented by Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa following deliberation by an 11-member panel of judges.

The Regional Excellence Award in the North was won by the Rachamankha Hotel in Chiang Mai, while the Tohsang Hotel in Ubon Ratchathani won for the northeastern region, Chakrabongse Villas in Bangkok for the central region and the Paresa Resort in Phuket for the South.

Niwatt Chittalarn, president and chief executive officer of KTC, said tourism had been affected by the domestic political situation and the recession in Europe and the United States, with small to medium-sized hotels being particularly hard hit.

"During the crisis, many boutique hotels have been uncompetitive on pricing but they do have strong advantages in their outstanding and unique design. So, we want to improve their potential to grow their business. The awards should help operators to gain more customers from these certifications," said Niwatt.

Duangkamol Chotana, editor of Krungthep Turakij, said many unique boutique hotels had applied to participate in the scheme. However, between the periods of review of the contestants, many provinces had been caught up in the flooding crisis.

"So, we decided that we would skip the 'Special Excellence Award' for the best-of-the-best boutique hotel with superiority in all aspects, because it would be unfair on the boutique hotels in flooded areas," Duangkamol said.