Chiang Mai spotlighted as Route to World Culture Heritages in Greater Mekong Sub-region in ITE HCMC 2015 workshop

Mr. Chattan

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is participating in the workshop of “Route to World Culture Heritages in the Greater Mekong Sub-region: Quang Nam – Siem Reap – Luang Prabang – Chiang Mai – Bagan”, which is a part of the International Travel Expo in Ho Chi Minh City (ITE HCMC 2015). The event is being held on 9 September, 2015, in order to promote travel routes via the World Culture Heritage Sites in the GMS countries.

The ITE HCMC 2015 is claimed to be the most important travel trade event in the Vietnamese market. This year’s ITE will see the presence of 24 Thai exhibitors and travel and tourism operators in the Thai Pavilion, which bears the marketing theme “2015 Discover Thainess.”

Invited to be a keynote speaker at the workshop, Mr. Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT Executive Director of the Advertising and Public Relations Department, said that “Chiang Mai is brimming with Lanna culture, a significant foundation of its distinctive way of life and tradition. In spite of the rapid growth of urban life nowadays, the capital of the Lanna kingdom is still able to represent the trace of cultural identity and heritage dating back more than 700 years.”

Recently, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) added the monuments, sites, and cultural landscape of Chiang Mai to its tentative list of World Heritage Sites in the 39th meeting in Bonn, Germany, from 28 June to 8 July, 2015. This is the first step towards upgrading the sites from tentative to full.

Vietnam is the fourth largest source market from the ASEAN countries. Vietnamese citizens get a 30-day visa-free entry to Thailand. In 2014, Thailand welcomed 573,184 Vietnamese visitors.

During January–July 2015, Vietnamese visitor arrivals to Thailand totalled 488,819, up by 48.46% over the same period of 2014. TAT is targeting 880,000 Vietnamese visitors in 2015.

As of September 2015, six airlines are operating 140 direct flights per week between Bangkok and two major cities of Vietnam.