Thailand mart to showcase Mekong region
BANGKOK: Three of Thailand’s primary travel and tourism showcase events are to be merged into one large function targeted at both the trade and consumer at Bangkok’s Challenger Hall, Impact Muang Thong Thani Exhibition Centre.
The June 7-10 event will bring together the Thailand Travel Mart (TTM) Plus Amazing Gateway to Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and Thailand Tourism Festival 2007 (TTF 2007).
About 315 sellers from Thailand and GMS countries are expected to participate in the Thailand Travel Mart 2007 Plus Amazing Gateway.
These include 224 hotels, five airlines, eight ecotourism and adventure operators, 18 medical and health tourism facilities, NTOs and other services, 29 tour operators and 31 companies from the Greater Mekong Subregion.
The broad range of sellers will mean that the 350 invited buyers will have an opportunity to obtain information about products and services in Thailand as well as all neighbouring countries
About 50 corporate buyers from Thailand will be invited to attend on the afternoon of the final trade day to give additional exposure to the sellers.
This will be followed by two days of consumer participation on June 9-10.
Tourism Authority of Thailand said the event is especially important for the small and medium sized enterprises “which do not have the large marketing budgets to afford participation in the major international trade shows”.
In a boost for Thai tourism, 18 Asia Pacific destinations are expected to receive more than US$110 billion in additional tourism revenue over the next three years, according to a report just released by PATA — Asia Pacific Tourism Forecasts 2007-2009.
Thailand will be one of the biggest beneficiaries, gaining almost US$13 billion by 2009. Other markets likely to receive strong receipts growth over the forecast period include Malaysia, with close to US$11 billion; Korea (ROK) with US$7 billion; China (PRC) with US$36 billion; and Macau SAR with US$5 billion.
The predicted windfall for Thailand follows on from the results of the recent Asia Travel Intentions Survey 2007 which revealed that 9% more travellers were looking at Asia as their next travel destination, with one in five ranking Thailand as their most likely destination.
The survey was jointly conducted by Visa International Asia Pacific and PATA.
The PATA figures will be good news for Association of Thai Travel Agents members who have seen arrival figures continue to fall in April.
ATTA reports the number of tourists its members welcomed at Suvarnabhumi Airport tumbled 16.75%, or 36,533 arrivals, compared to April last year. This brings the total figure during for the first four months of 2007 to 884,093,
Ian Jarrett
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