Agent Interactivity
TAT has pledged that a major focus for this year will be to work more closely with the travel trade throughout the region.

“Interactivity with the travel agents is our main drive for this year,” says Supyen. “Our ambition is to continuously educate the market. So we constantly visit the agents and give them product briefings.”

TAT has launched a number of new initiatives designed to reach out to the trade, including a road show of Thai suppliers — one has just taken place in Iran, and another is planned for the GCC later this year.

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Fam trips are also on the cards for agents. An additional 12,000 rooms will be added to Thailand’s hotel inventory this year, and tourist attractions are also being upgraded — such as Safari World, Bangkok, and a brand new Madame Tussauds which opened in December (the U$16.3million attraction is the first Madame Tussauds in South East Asia). TAT wants Middle East agents to experience the new offerings for themselves.

“We do fam trips throughout the year. We have one out from Syria at the moment, and one going out from Lebanon soon,” says Supyen. “We are also planning a mega fam trip in the month of March when we will invite around 50 travel agents from around the entire region.”

TAT also has a popular online agent training programme: the Amazing Thailand Academy. Agents that pass the nine-module training programme are nominated for a fam trip (the first group of ‘Amazing Thailand Academy’ graduates returned from Thailand last month — turn to p.44 to read their feedback).

“This is a way to take the frontliners, because sometimes the frontliners don’t get to participate on fam trips,” explains Supyen.

“In many cases we invite the travel agency and it is up to the manager to nominate someone to go — sometimes they go themselves and sometimes they send someone.

“We want to nominate the people who are actually selling Thailand, so by passing the Amazing Thailand Academy, the agents qualify to go.”

Another travel trade initiative is TAT’s ‘Best Itinerary’ contest. Agents have to submit their dream Thailand itinerary on a given theme, and the winning itinerary will be awarded their dream trip to Thailand.

“We give them the theme and they have to include the calculated budget,” explains Supyen.

“The reason we do this is that we want it to be as if someone could walk in a buy this itinerary. We judge it one how they have incorporated the ‘seven wonders of Thailand’.

The originality, whether he has brought something new to the market as well as the budget. The winner will win their actual itinerary for two people — they just need to provide the tickets.”