Isra Stapanaseth, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Delhi inaugurates ITM Amritsar
Isra Stapanaseth, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Delhi Office inaugurated India Travel Mart at Amritsar. He was accompanied by Piyush Kapoor, general secretary, Amritsar Hotels & Restaurant Associations (AHARA), delegates, exhibitors, travel agents, tour operators, travel trade, hoteliers, media and several travellers from Punjab and nearby states.
On this occasion, Stapanaseth said that India is an emerging market for Thailand considering that Thailand is a preferred destination for outbound Indian tourists. Not only do these comprise FITs seeking leisure travel, but also guests who visit the country to host weddings, organise film shoots and MICE events. Around 1.04 million Indian tourist visited Thailand in 2017 (Jan to Sep), which is a 16% growth from the previous year.
His purpose to visit the event was to network with travel agents and media and update them about the new products and strategies that the country offers. This includes creating women-only tours and packages for Special Interest Groups like senior citizens, bachelors and bachelorettes who are increasingly travelling outside the country.
“Amritsar is a very potential market for us as we have seen a lot of growth for MICE customers as well as family groups. We would like to focus more on tier-2 and 3 cities like Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Lucknow, etc, going forth,” he said.
He added that the Thai government is trying to connect these cities with direct flights so that it will be easiery for tourists to travel from Chandigarh and cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Moga, etc. “A direct flight, which will be only 4.30 hours, will connect Chandigarh to Bangkok from 11th December 2017 onwards,” he stated.
