SMEs Dominated the Thailand Travel Mart Plus

BANGKOK, 2013-06-07 — /travelprnews.com/ — Dozens of Thai travel products and services ranging from boutique hotels to health and wellness centres gained valuable exposure and potential future business as a result of their participation in Thailand’s largest business to business travel trade fair between 5-7 June, 2013.

Small and medium sized entrepreneurs dominated the Thailand Travel Mart Plus Greater Mekong Subregion travel show which was attended by 397 buyers from 56 countries and 432 sellers from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR. and Myanmar and Yunnan Province of Southern China.

The top five country buyers were from the UK (33), India (27), Russia (15), Korea (12) and China (11). There were also new buyers from Argentina (3), Brazil (3), Mexico (2) from the Americas, as well as from Algeria (2), Belarus (5), and Latvia (1).

Yunnan Province exhibited for the first time and provided a detailed media briefing. Myanmar sellers also reported good business, thanks to growing demand as a result of the opening up of their country to tourism and business travel. Representatives of both Lao PDR. and Cambodia gave media briefings, adding further value to their participation.

Organised annually by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the TTM+ is mainly designed to benefit SME travel products and services, especially those who cannot afford the high cost of undertaking marketing trips abroad but need access to contacts and networking opportunities. It also provides exposure to emerging provincial destinations, thus helping to meet the national economic development strategy of better distributing income around the country.

Most of the SME exhibitors were deluxe boutique hotels and resorts, which have proliferated across Thailand. Although many of them are located on the islands and coastlines of the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, several new ones have emerged in the North and Central parts of the country.

Other new products were biking tours, cooking schools, Thai boxing stadiums, health and wellness centres and Thai massage schools. They all fit within the TAT’s marketing strategy of promoting “Thainess” as the kingdom’s Unique Selling Proposition.

Another major new era of development is along Bangkok’s famed Chao Phraya River, the River of Kings, where many properties and old buildings are either being renovated or rebuilt into exclusive hotels for discerning clients. All of these have easy accessibility and offer all the hospitable facilities that Thailand is renowned for.  At least one new property is only accessible by riverboat rather than by road.

Running concurrently alongside the TTM+ was the Thailand Tourism Festival, a huge consumer-oriented event with an even larger turnout of travel products and services, although directed mostly at the domestic travel market. A number of buyers took the opportunity to visit the festival to get a more “local” flavour of the products available.

The TTM+ trade-show floor at the Impact Muang Thong Thani Exhibition and Convention Centre was busy until the very last day. Most sellers offered positive feedback about the business contacts established and the chance to network with buyers from across the globe.

One seller commented, “It was very important for us to get feedback and get a better idea of how customer profiles and demands are changing in the various markets. The better we can adapt and respond to what the market wants, the better our chances of getting more business.”

TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said, “This year’s TTM Plus was a true reflection of the changes taking place in both global customer demand and product supply. As most of Thailand’s visitor arrivals are now coming from short- and medium-haul markets, especially the Asia-Pacific region, most of our sellers are also changing to become more specialised and niche-market oriented.”

A TAT media briefing on the state of the Thai tourism industry, and future prospects was attended by 100 international and local media. The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau also took the opportunity to brief the media about its projects and plans.

In 2013, TAT is projecting that if the global, regional and local situation remains stable, Thailand will receive 24.14 million arrivals, generating a projected tourism income of 1.1 trillion Baht.

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