Create highlights to attract Thai tourists

(Baonghean) - From November 23 to 25, Nghe An province organized a tourism promotion campaign in Bangkok and Udon Thani province (Thailand). This promotion campaign attracted great attention from authorities at all levels and tourism businesses of the neighboring country; opening up new prospects for tourism on both sides. At the same time, Nghe An tourism industry learned more about the needs of the Thai tourism market...

Leaders of Nghe An province exchanged with leaders of the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Bangkok City government.

Promote economic and tourism cooperation

For many years, Thailand has been one of the top destinations that Vietnamese tourists love and choose. And conversely, the number of Thai tourists to Vietnam is always in the list of the top 10 markets sending customers to Vietnam tourism, reaching over 215,000 visitors/year, accounting for nearly 3% of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam.

However, the number of Thai tourists visiting Vietnam is unevenly distributed, mainly concentrated in the two northern and southern poles of the country. In the north, there is the destination triangle of Hanoi - Ha Long - Sa Pa; in the south, there is Ho Chi Minh City - Mui Ne (Binh Thuan) - Da Lat (Lam Dong). Compared to the above two poles, the number of Thai tourists coming to the North Central region is not much.

As part of the strategy to promote tourism development in the North Central region, on November 23 and 25, 2016, the People's Committee of Nghe An province continued to coordinate with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue to organize a tourism promotion campaign for Nghe An in Bangkok and Udon Thani province (Thailand). Compared to previous times, this tourism promotion campaign in Thailand has many new features.

Firstly, it is the introduction of new direct flights. With air routes, in addition to direct flights from Thailand - Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, in the North Central region there is a direct flight from Vinh - Bangkok connecting Udon Thani, Bangkok - Hue and vice versa. Based on the new flight route, this is the first time that the tourism promotion campaign for the North Central provinces has been opened in Bangkok, Thailand - a large and potential market.

Second, the North Central provinces participating in this promotion campaign introduced outstanding world heritages such as the Complex of Hue Monuments, Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park; Hue Royal Court Music; Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks; Ho Dynasty Citadel and famous landscapes. In addition, the provinces introduced new products, such as Quang Binh province introducing the Hollywood film studio - the blockbuster King Kong. Nghe An in particular is the destination of the Sunflower Festival - Nghia Dan combined with orange gardens, clean vegetables and Thanh Chuong tea hills.

Third, the new product has attracted the attention of organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. In the tourism promotion conference in Bangkok, there were nearly 180 delegates attending, including leading travel companies in Thailand such as Happy Holidays, 333 Tour and even travel companies from other provinces who proactively traveled hundreds of kilometers to attend to find partners and information.

Delegates and representatives of Thai tourism businesses learn about Nghe An at the tourism promotion conference in Bangkok (Thailand).

Need more quality products

During the tourism promotion campaign in Bangkok and Udon Thani, on behalf of the leaders of the North Central provinces in general and Nghe An in particular, Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Minh Thong expressed his wish: Enterprises of the two countries seize the opportunity, promote cooperation and association for mutual development, for the benefit of the enterprises themselves, and at the same time contribute to the prosperity of Vietnam and Thailand.

At the conferences, localities and businesses also had many direct exchanges and discussions to find a direction for connecting and developing Vietnam - Thailand tourism in the coming time. Mr. Cao Duc Cuong - Director of ABC Travel International Tourism Company Limited said: "Those who came to the promotion are businesses looking for partners and products. My company alone has signed a number of new contracts... Vietravel, Thai Son Travel also achieved similar results."

Thai tourists come to Nghe An via Vinh - Bangkok flight.

The delegates also had important speeches and discussions on the development and implementation of solutions to promote cooperation with Thailand in developing tourism in Nghe An and the North Central provinces of Vietnam. Accordingly, North Central tourism in general and Nghe An in particular need to supplement shortcomings and invest in building new products - truly quality.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son - Consulate General of Vietnam in Khon Ken - Thailand said: To attract Thai tourists to the North Central region, it requires strong direction, active investment from all levels and the participation of companies. On the state management side, it is necessary to learn from Thailand in building a tourism culture for all people.

Mr. Nguyen Quy Phuong - Director of the Tourism Department, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism emphasized: "The Thai market has a lot of potential. The important thing is that the North Central region needs to have unique tourism products." Mr. Cao Duc Cuong - Director of ABC Travel International Tourism Company Limited commented: "We need to have new products with reasonable prices, but more importantly, we need to bring back what Thai tourists need. For example, the whole country of Thailand currently does not have a cable car, so Thai tourists are very curious and excited to ride the cable car. Similarly, the climate in Thailand is often very hot, Thai tourists like the cold air. In response to the request, my company has opened a tour to explore the sunflower hill on the occasion of December 20."

There will be a tour to explore Nghia Dan sunflower hill for Thai tourists.

Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hoai - Deputy Director of Vietravel Vinh branch shared: "Through field surveys, Thai tourists now want new tourism product packages, different from the previous tradition. Besides, Nghe An needs to re-arrange and re-plan the night market to sell tourism products, and have more resorts combined with golf courses and supermarkets"...

On the side of Thai tourism businesses, they are very interested in the support mechanism to help businesses and new products. Mr. Veeraphong Phakaew - Director of New Way travel - Thailand said: "We need to have more new attractive tourism programs similar to exploring Dien Bien Phu to understand more about the heroic history of Vietnam". Mr. Komsan Prasomsri - Director of Dream Destina Tour Company stated: "Thai tourists want to have tours through which they can learn about the human potential and hidden beauty of Vietnam".

Mr. ThinaKorn ThoongPhao - Chairman of the Tourism Association of Udon Thani and Nong Khai provinces said: The Association will seriously survey the destinations. If the tourism products are of good quality and meet the demand, the association and businesses will soon proactively urge the Thai government to open a flight route from Udon Thani to Vinh.

Thanh Son