TAT UPDATE

E ffective 1 July 2003, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) underwent a major restructuring, designed to significantly improve the way it markets the multibillion baht Thai tourism industry, both domestic and international. The restructuring is in line with the concept of creating an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) organisation that will deliver the right products to the right customer segments at the right time.
TAT Governor Mrs. Juthamas Siriwan said, “It is becoming an increasingly competitive tourism industry worldwide, and we need to make sure that we are undertaking the right marketing activities in the right destinations to maintain our market share.”

The restructuring follows the October 2002 creation of the country’s first Ministry of Tourism and Sports, which will now be handling all issues related to the development and operations of the industry. This has left TAT solely in charge of marketing.

The restructuring is designed to help TAT manage its ongoing campaigns and also respond quickly to sudden changes in economic and political conditions caused by external shocks.
The restructuring divided TAT into five main departments:
1. One department responsible for setting up the policies and marketing plans, as well as supporting tourism product development efforts.

2&3. Two departments responsible for implementing the marketing plans and presenting the products to the target markets, one each for international and domestic markets.

4. One department responsible for advertising and public relations activities, which will support the marketing campaigns and help build the image of the Thai tourism industry using all available media.

5. One administration department, which was already in existence, responsible for internal administration.
The restructuring is designed to help TAT pursue its objective of making Thailand the “Tourism Capital of Asia”.
That is the over-arching goal of its marketing plan for 2004, which targets total visitor arrivals of 11 million in 2004, up 13.4% over the projected arrivals for 2003. Domestic visitors are targetted at 67.12 million trips, up 3.10% over the projections for 2003. Revenue earnings are targetted at 340,000 million baht from foreign visitors (+17.40%), and 362,500 million baht from domestic visitors (+20.07%).

Khun Juthamas said, “Now that the SARS crisis is over and the fallout from the war in Iraq has receded, we can go back to business as usual.”

Overall, the plan emphasises attracting ‘quality visitors’, those with high purchasing power and potential for long average stays.

The markets targetted for intensive promotions are mainly in the Asia-Pacific region: Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Indochina and New Zealand. Other markets that will see an extra effort include the U.K., Italy, Russia, Spain, Finland and the U.A.E. These 16 countries, territories and regions generate about 80% of total visitor arrivals.

In terms of segmentation, the plan identifies two target groups. The primary groups are identified as M.I.C.E. (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) delegates, high-income earners, golf, wellness and spa, family, diving, youth and honeymooners, while the secondary groups are senior citizens, ladies, eco and soft adventure, medical tourism, long stay, film-makers and education trips.

According to Khun Juthamas, “Our key message is designed to make potential visitors aware of the value of new Thai products which they may not have seen or experienced, like nature, culture, architecture, historical parks and special interest activities. In each of these categories, Thailand has many new and interesting products that can be highlighted in order to convince potential visitors to make Thailand the choice for their next holiday.”

Khun Juthamas said TAT will work to boost the image of the country as a “quality destination” by building and enhancing the brand image. “We will also build the knowledge base of Thailand and the promotional network, in cooperation with both the public and private sectors overseas.”

At the same time, TAT will establish more overseas offices, do joint marketing with tour operators and airlines, create unique selling points for the various products and increase marketing promotion with the media. Festivals and activities that will feature highly in the 2004 marketing plan include the Bangkok International Film Festival, Pattaya Music Festival, Songkran, Loy Krathong, Thailand Grand Sale, and Bangkok Countdown.

Khun Juthamas said the plan also puts considerable emphasis on boosting tourism contacts and joint marketing campaigns with neighbouring countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The domestic market is also a key target, especially niche segments, like families, senior citizens, young people, M.I.C.E. delegates, high-income earners and expatriates.

TAT’s restructuring process and strategic planning for 2004 was done against the backdrop of the sudden shift it had to make to mount emergency tactical campaigns to help the industry recover from the SARS crisis and the aftermath of the Iraq war. A series of rapid-fire campaigns were put together in cooperation with the Thai Hotels Association, Association of Thai Travel Agents, Thai Airways International (THAI) and other industry groupings.

One campaign was “Thailand Smiles Plus”, under which hotel packages were offered as “Buy One, Get One Free”. Guests could stay two nights for the price of one or four nights for the price of two. Another 36 tourism-related businesses participated in the “Big Smiles Card”, which was a 20-50% discount card featuring 14 restaurants, 10 golf courses, three transportation operators, including the skytrain in Bangkok, three shops, three spas and three hospitals, where visitors could get a medical check-up.

This campaign was supported by the regular annual Grand Sale in June-July, under which hundreds of department stores, retail shops and travel and tourism attractions offered a range of discounts for their products and services. The campaign also targetted the domestic market, including both Thais and expatriates in the country. THAI boosted the “weight” of the campaign by offering an airborne lucky draw too, featuring prizes of free roundtrip economy class air tickets.

To help the country offset the negative image of the SARS crisis, TAT organised an exclusive familiarisation trip for 1,500 travel agents and media to get first-hand experience of the destination, helping to rebuild confidence among agents who sell Thai products and generate positive results from media coverage.

The newest of the TAT campaigns was targetted at the domestic market, called “Unseen in Thailand”, which featured many destinations that Thais may be aware of but have not yet seen. It was targetted not just at regular travellers, but also companies in order to encourage them to organise their meetings, incentives, and conventions and exhibitions within Thailand.

It’s been a busy 2003 for TAT, whose executives were scrambling to put together the various campaigns even while managing a move into a new head office. Given all the surrounding circumstances, TAT came out of it quite well.

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