The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is introducing a new campaign aiming to extend the South Korean tourist base by attracting more teenagers and young working people to Thailand. It is entitled, “Come to Thailand, Let’s Take A Break”, and heart-throb singing star Nichkhun Horvejkul is its presenter.

Weerasak Kowsurat, Chairman of TAT’s Board of Directors, acknowledged that Thailand’s tourism industry has bean hit hard by the global economic slowdown and the spread of type-A flu.

TAT has been active in conducting campaigns to promote Thailand as a popular tourism destination for Asian tourists, especially from South Korea. The number of South Korean tourists in 2008 was 607,071, or 6.16 per cent of all East Asian visitors.

“Koreans usually like to travel abroad in July or August, Thailand’s low tourist season, and their preferred destinations are Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Samui,” he said. There are 86 direct flights from South Korea to Thailand by five airlines — THAI, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Orient Thai and SkyStar.”

TAT Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications Juthaporn Rerngronasa said that “Come to Thailand, Let’s Take A Break” would raise awareness of Thailand as a tourist destination where visitors will find a wide variety of enjoyable holiday experiences at affordable prices. The target of this campaign, in addition to existing tourist groups, are young people of the same age as the presenter Nichkhun.

“Nichkhun is a young man who is building his reputation as a member of 2PM, the popular Korean band, so he will be communicating directly to our target groups and encouraging more young people in Korea to discover our country. This may begin from 2PM fans and will then spread out to a wider public,” said Juthaporn.

The TAT commercial for the campaign shows Nichkhun playing golf, Thai boxing and going to traditional festivals, showing that Thailand has many beautiful natural resources and tourist attractions and a unique culture.

TAT is promoting the campaign through the specially created website www.nichkhunbreak.com, online communities, Nichkhun’s fan websites and popular entertainment websites. Booklets have been published to provide information for younger tourists, its contents include Let’s Play. Let’s Have Fun, Let’s Relax, Let’s Taste and Let’s Go Shopping. There will also be a “tracking Nichkhun” activity for Korean fans.

“Potential visitors from Korea will learn that Thailand is a world-famous tourist destination with beautiful natural resources, culture and traditions, and lots of activities for tourists as well as a cuisine that’s an international favourite,” said Juthaporn.

In an interview, Nichkhun said that he was pleased and honoured to be appointed as Thailand’s representative to promote this campaign.

“I had a lot of fun filming the commercial playing golf, boxing, diving and visiting many places to show the charm of Thailand,” he said. “Whether you love adventure or relaxing travel, this is a country with so many good things to discover.”

“Thailand’s tourism may not improve quickly in the continuing negative environment, but TAT is already preparing for the future expansion of the economy and the industry,” said Weerasak. “And we are collaborating fully with all government measures to regain tourist confidence over questions concerning Type A flu and tourist safety.”

Enter the Ultimate Thailand Explorers competition: Get a free trip to Thailand and a chance to win over $15,000 in cash and prizes.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand invites travellers from around the world to apply to become contestants in the Ultimate Thailand Explorers competition, an exciting concept in integrated online travel marketing.

Five teams from across the globe will be provided with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: 6 expenses-paid days exploring the sights and attractions in five of Thailand’s world famous holiday destinations: Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Koh Samui.

Each day the teams of competitors must visit the many fantastic attractions and activities at their chosen destinations and then share their experiences with the online community by uploading videos, photos, and stories on various websites including, youtube, facebook, twitter, and blogs.

Online voting for the team that produces the most exciting and informative videos about the attractions and activities in their destination will determine who are the Ultimate Thailand Explorers. Participating teams and registered voters are eligible for more than $25,000 in cash, travel awards, and other fantastic prizes.

By sending the teams to these top destinations and allowing real travellers to showcase the exciting attractions and activities to the rest of the world, the event aims to ensure other travellers that Thailand is still a premier tourist destination and inspire them to visit Thailand and experience it all for themselves.

Mrs Juthaporn Rerngrosana, Tourism Authority of Thailand Deputy Governor for Marketing Communication explained the reasoning behind the event: “The tourism industry has been affected from frequently false and certainly exaggerated information about the political instability in Thailand, much of which has been spread over the internet. The main purpose of this campaign is to enhance the positive perceptions about Thailand, to help regain tourists’ confidence in travelling to Thailand, and to create a more clear and balanced understanding of the conditions in Thailand to the worldwide media, especially through online media, such as bloging and social networking sites that have an impact on tourists’ travel making decisions.”

Application process and Selection of contestants:
Applications are open to teams of two (friends, siblings, lovers, family members, colleagues) who must submit a short but entertaining audition video explaining why they want to travel to Thailand and how they will promote their preferred destination to the world. After uploading their video to www.youtube.com, applicants must fill out an application that states their preferred destination and describes their social media and internet savvy.

From the pool of applicants, a panel of judges will select 25 semi-finalists, five teams for each destination, whose audition videos will be posted on www.ultimatethailandexplorers.com for registered voters to select the five finalist teams.

The contest entry period begins on September 1st and runs until October 15th. After selecting the 25 semi-finalists, online voting for the five finalists will run from October 19th until November 12th.

About the Event:
The five finalist teams competing in the Ultimate Thailand Explorers event will be flown to Bangkok on Emirates Airlines for an event briefing, welcome party, and press conference on December 9th. The following day each team will be sent to their respective destinations, accompanied by their local volunteer liaisons to participate in the main event from December 10th to the 15th.

The five teams will have six days to travel around their selected destinations and explore the many attractions, sights, activities, and other features found there. To promote the destinations, the contestants are required to share their daily experiences with a global audience by posting photos, videos, blogs, and travel stories with social media tools. After a period of online voting (December 10th – January 8th), the team that receives the most votes from online registered voters will be named the Ultimate Thailand Explorers and will receive $10,000 cash, a holiday package valued at $3,000 USD, round trip air tickets Bangkok – Chiang Mai, Blackberry cell phones, a 10,000 THB gift voucher at Siam Paragon, Spa treatments and other prizes.

Runners-up will also win randomly selected prize packages and two voters will win prize packages based on a lucky draw. Prize packages vary, but include Blackberry cell phones, free accommodation at premier Thai hotels in the five featured destinations, spa vouchers, event tickets and more. Winning teams will be announced on January 8th and a press conference with the grand prize winners of the Ultimate Thailand Explorers competition will be held on February 2, 2010.

Contact information:
International Public Relation Division
Tourism Authority of Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2250 5500 ext. 4545-48
Fax: +66 (0) 2253 7419
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.tatnews.org

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is now on Facebook and Twitter. Both are the most well-known online social network community in many countries including in Thailand. The project focuses on motivating Thailand tourism trend, increasing number of travelers, and creating new online media to communicate and get in touch with foreign travelers on Facebook and Twitter to come to Thailand. This will be an new effective tool to communicate with travelers on Thailand tourism campaign.

Travelers now can update latest Thailand tourism information, activities, events, photos and VDO. For Facebook members, they can access on “Amazing Thailand” page and on “ThailandFanClub” account is for Twitter members, Moreover, travelers who visit “Amazing Thailand” page on Facebook can “become a fan” and who have Twitter account on Twitter can also “following” “ThailandFanClub” in order to get up to date Thailand tourism realtime. Another way to visit “Amazing Thailand” on Facebook and “ThailandFanClub” on Twitter is to click at Facebook and Twitter banner from Tourism Authority of Thailand official website at http://tourismthailand.org Don’t hesitate to update and share Thailand tourism experience, just click …

Facebook >> “Amazing Thailand” : http://www.facebook.com/AmazingThailand
Twitter >> “ThailandFanClub” :  http://twitter.com/thailandFanClub
or from Tourism Authority of Thailand official website, click on Facebook and Twitter banner at http://www.tourismthailand.org