The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans to exploit booming tourism in Japan next year when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games.
The event, scheduled from July 24 to Aug 9, 2020, is expected to draw a large number of foreign visitors to Japan, topping 40 million for the entire year. In 2018, Japan recorded 31 million foreign arrivals.
Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor for marketing communications at the TAT, said the agency plans to promote Thailand at the Olympics, opening a Thai House to advertise several favourite tourist destinations of the Japanese and other foreign tourists.
The agency will invite operators from Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Bangkok to showcase their services and products at Thailand's pavilion in Shinagawa, a district in Tokyo hosting several sporting events and activities.
"Demonstrations of Thai culture and cuisine will also be carried out throughout the event to impress both tourists from Japan and other countries," Mr Tanes said.
Thailand welcomed 38 million overseas visitors last year, of whom 1.65 million were Japanese.
The government expects to receive 41 million visitors this year, with several marketing campaigns launched to encourage foreign travellers to visit small provinces.
Mr Tanes said Thailand Travel Mart Plus (TTM+) 2019, one of the TAT's major tourism trade fairs, has the theme "New Shades of Emerging Destinations" to promote new tourism sites, create jobs and distribute revenue to secondary provinces.
A total of 351 buyers, including 60 international buyers, are taking part in the fair, which ends tomorrow at Ocean Marina Yacht Club in Pattaya.
Mr Tanes told participants at TTM+ that the agency is promoting 55 secondary provinces to visitors seeking new experiences. In 2018, these destinations recorded 6.22 million trips by foreign tourists, growth of 4.95% on the year before.
The TAT outlined an A-B-C strategy, standing for Additional, Brand New and Combined, to promote visits to the 55 provinces.
Additional means linking major and emerging cities. For example, in the North, tourists can travel by car within an hour to Lamphun and Lampang from Chiang Mai. Similarly, on the Eastern Seaboard, Pattaya can be linked to Chanthaburi and Trat in the East.
Some popular destinations in second-tier provinces can be individually promoted as Brand New tourism, thanks to their strong identity and positioning, such as Buri Ram, which has a rich Khmer heritage and is becoming a regional hub for domestic and global sporting events.
The Combined strategy is set to combine emerging cities, Mr Tanes said. Some emerging cities can be promoted in combination because of their proximity and shared history and civilisation.
"For example, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok and Kamphaeng Phet would make an outstanding historical route, while Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung are grouped for southern civilisation," Mr Tanes said.
This year, the TAT targets more than 88 million trips to 55 second-tier provinces, a 5.8% increase from last year, with tourism revenue of 253 billion baht, up 9.2%.