The Tourism Authority of Thailand in Mumbai has developed a strategy to offer travellers the chance to maximise 2015’s long list of long weekends. ‘Luxury Weekends in Thailand’ encourages travellers to plan their long weekend breaks in advance– this allows TAT and its partners to pass on early-bird discounts. Luxury Weekends offers off-beat, high-end experiences in Thailand packaged under special rates.
Soraya Homchuen, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand– Mumbai said, “Many high-end Indian travellers who have visited Thailand on multiple occasions want to explore beyond Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. They are willing to invest in visiting onward destinations in Thailand and they are eager to savour new experiences as well as more immersive experiences that come with ‘digging deeper’ and visiting strongholds of culture and Thai lifestyle. Luxury Weekends targets specifically this traveller and is TAT Mumbai’s response to two key trends; travellers are making it a point to undertake one or two short-haul and one long-haul vacations in each year. Moreover, extended weekend holidays are becoming the norm– especially in 2015 where there is an unusually long list of public/ festive holidays just after a weekend, offering people the chance to take a short break.”
TAT Mumbai has partnered with Thai Airways and travel agents Mercury Travels, Uniglobe Odyssey and Vinayak Holidays to promote Luxury Weekends in Thailand. Under Luxury Weekends travellers can opt for destinations such as Krabi, Phuket, Hua Hin, Rayong, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, etc. Also TAT is looking at promoting the lesser known destinations like Koh Chang, Koh Samet, Koh Kood, Kanchanaburi etc.
Homchuen promises that the project will soon be rolled out to more Indian cities under the TAT Mumbai umbrella. “Many travel agents from other cities, particularly Hyderabad and Bangalore, have contacted us and expressed eagnerness to partner on the Luxury Weekends promotions. We began with Pune as a pilot project – Pune is a small and ripe market, packed with fans of Thailand. We also noticed that travellers from Mumbai are already opting for such breaks (I think Mumbai’s high end travellers have designated Thailand a convenient weekend destination) and therefore it made sense to try and extend the trend to Pune. Banking on the success of the Pune project, which has been launched earlier this month and will continue through March, TAT Mumbai plans to roll out the promotion in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and possibly Chennai. Ahmedabad and Surat may be on the cards in a later phase,”added Homchuen.