THAI DELEGATION PARTICIPATES IN 2008 NATAS HOLIDAY TRAVEL FAIR IN SINGAPORE

THAI DELEGATION PARTICIPATES IN 2008 NATAS HOLIDAY TRAVEL FAIR IN SINGAPORE


The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) led a delegation of Thai travel and tourism-related operators from Phuket, Samui and Central Thailand to the NATAS Holiday consumer travel fair in Singapore, August 1-3, 2008.
The NATAS Holiday consumer travel fair is where Singaporean travellers shop for the best bargains for their holidays.
With a strong Singapore Dollar, Singaporean consumers are literally getting more mileage for the dollar. This is spurring a new interest in overseas travel. While Australia, South Korea, Japan and Europe rank as the most popular destinations for long-haul travel for Singaporean travellers, Thailand is the short-haul favourite.
Singapore is an important source market for visitor arrivals to Thailand. The proximity of the city state, excellent accessibility and connectivity, and fast and convenient travel to destinations around Thailand, present numerous opportunities for weekend travel and short trips. This coupled with the tremendous value for money that Thailand offers, accounts for the significant number of return visitors.
While Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Hua Hin and Samui remain the popular choices, visitors from Singapore are beginning to venture beyond these key destinations and have increasingly shown interest in new destinations such as Kanchanaburi, Suphan Buri, Saraburi, Nakhon Ratchasima (Khorat), Krabi and others.
Value-added marketing promotions designed to spark the interest of short-haul visitors, such as the recent launch of the 72 hrs Amazing Thailand Chiang Mai campaign, a joint TAT-MasterCard Worldwide joint promotional campaign following on from the successful introduction of 72 hrs Amazing Thailand are expected to help sustain a steady growth in visitor arrivals from the city state to the Thai kingdom.
Based on visitor arrivals via Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport from January through to June 2008, Thailand has welcomed a total of 230,055 visitors from Singapore, an increase of 24.13 per cent over the same period in 2007. According to TAT forecasts, visitor arrivals from Singapore will reach 879,300 by year-end, reflecting a 10.04 per cent growth over the 2007 year-end total.
Related article: “72 hrs Amazing Thailand Chiang Mai”Please click to view