Thailands romantic travel makes gains

Mrs. Juthaporn Rerngronasa,
TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing
(Europe, Africa, Middle East and Americas)

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) organised the “Amazing Thailand Romance Trade Meets” in Bangkok on 11 May, 2016, at the Avani Riverside Bangkok Hotel. The second event will be hosted tomorrow2 (13 May, 2016) at the Sofitel Krabi Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort in Krabi, as part of the hosted familiarisation trips for 72 foreign travel experts and wedding planners.

TAT’s offices in 13 locations, worldwide, invited travel firms that have demonstrated a strong track record selling weddings and honeymoons in major source markets, including; the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, France, the UAE, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

They joined networking and business sessions with 62 local sellers at the Bangkok event, who represent hotels, resorts, destination management companies (DMCs) and event planners based in Thailand. At the Krabi event, two days later, they will meet Thai sellers from 50 companies, mainly resorts in South Thailand.

Weddings and honeymoons are billion dollar earners for Asia’s tourism industry and Thailand is emerging as one of the region’s top spots to tie the knot.

A mid-2013 TAT study on niche market tourism, based on 30,000 interviews and questionnaires, estimated Thailand attracted 1,043,684 wedding and honeymoon related trips and earned 34.62 billion Baht.

The study indicated major source markets for weddings and honeymoons were East Asia, Europe and ASEAN, while the key driving factors were the abundance of beautiful beaches, luxury hotels and tropical climate.

Commenting on drawing more romantic travel to the country, Mrs. Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Europe, Africa, Middle East and Americas) said, “Thailand has been voted the ‘Best Honeymoon Destination’ by various websites and media, so we are confident the two trade meets, this May, will help grow the weddings and honeymoon market even further.”