The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Japan's leading tour operator JTB Group are planning to offer various packages and promotions to help restore tourism in Thailand, hoping to see a million Japanese visitors this year.
More than 60 JTB executives and frontline agency staff from Japan and in Thailand are touring Thailand for a few days before creating campaigns to help rebuild the country's tourism image as well as restore confidence among Japanese tourists after the political crisis.
Sansern Ngaorungsri, TAT's deputy governor for international marketing in Asia and the South Pacific, said TAT and JTB would soon introduce a range of new tourism products and services to encourage JTB clients to return to Thailand both in the coming high season and in the long term.
"Japan is the secondlargest market [for visitor arrivals in Thailand] after Malaysia. The number of arrivals plunged by 4050 per cent in the second quarter this year, so we need to boost the figure now that the political issues have improved," he said.
TAT will help sponsor advertising and campaigns on Thailand in Japan while JTB will keep promoting Thailand across Japan and selling tours.
Moreover, TAT will lobby the government to open unseen or limitedadmission places for JTB's clients to attract Japanese tourists.
JTB's managing director for global business promotion, Hiroyuki Imoto, said many Japanese had shifted to other countries since April because of fear of unrest in Thailand.
"Japanese are very sensitive over unrest. They still lack 100percent confidence to come to Thailand, so they need factual information from travel companies and advisories from the government before making a reservation," he |said.
This year, hotels in major cities are operating at a 60percent occupancy rate and resort cities are performing at 70 per cent, both lower numbers than in the past.
For years, JTB alone would handle 100,000 Japanese visitors to Thailand per year, but the number has plunged to 50,00060,000 over the past few |years.
"However, the group still sees Thailand as the No 1 market in the region as the economy improves. We will help rebuild Thailand's tourism," Hiroyuki said.
According to Thai Airways International, the airline reduced flight frequencies between Thailand and Japan since the political crisis in the second quarter this year as many Japanese shifted to South Korea, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan.
THAI says it will revise upward its daily service from Bangkok to Tokyo's Haneda Airport from October to March. Meanwhile, the airline will add three flights a week from Bangkok to Nagoya and two per week to Fukuoka.
Sansern said 1 million Japanese tourists visited Thailand each year before the crisis. The number has been falling since 2008. However, TAT forecasts that the number of Japanese tourists should reach 1 million again this year.
During the first seven months, the country received 546,917 Japanese, a 3percent increase over same time last year.