THAI teams up with TAT

Thai Airways International join hands with Tourism Authority of Thailand to promote the country’s tourism and cut costs, and promises this is now a permanent co-operation.

TAT chairman of the board, Wanchai Salathulthat, said after a meeting held at the TAT office, 20 August, THAI and TAT have agreed to help each other create win-win situations.

Led by TAT governor and THAI president, a team has been set up comprising of THAI’s executive vice president for commercial and corporate communications director and TAT’s deputy governors for international marketing, domestic marketing, advertising and public relations and crisis management centre head.

Starting 1 October, marketing and public relations plans for the two units will be shared to merge some projects. TAT will take THAI to its overseas road shows, tradeshows, familiarization trips and event biddings, and give free space at overseas marts.

In exchange, THAI promises to insert TAT’s advertising materials at its facilities such as on the planes’ LCD screens, in lounges and at TG offices both in Thailand and overseas. Advanced bookings will be periodically shared with TAT’s Crisis Management Centre.

The two units expect their cooperative efforts will save on their budgets and boost each other’s performance and awareness.

According to THAI, because TAT’s first quarter starts on 1 October while TG’s starts 1 January, THAI cannot fully support the initiative until next year. The first joint project will be led by TAT and will be announced next month.

THAI Executive Vice President for Commercial Department, Pandit Chanapai, said the winter schedule has been fixed with a plan to boost weekly frequency to Moscow in October on a 255-seat A340-600 from three to four.

THAI experienced a 5% drop in regional flights during the second quarter, from April to June, especially to Korea, China and India because of rising fuel surcharges, China’s visa restrictions and India’s oversupply of flights. It recently suspended plans to expand flights to Mumbai and Bangalore.

TAT is reporting its preliminary figures for tourist arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport’s immigration checkpoints from January to July that show an increase of 12.95% over last year to 6,540,126 passengers. China and India are showing a 24.06% and 13.11% jumps respectively while Korea tumbled 9.71%.