Thailand showcases its emerging travel destinations to China and the world
By Zhao Yipu
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Main camp of TTM + 2019. (Photo: Zhao Yipu)

Bangkok (People’s Daily) – Thailand’s most important B2B travel trade show, the Thailand Travel Mart Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Subregion (TTM+) 2019, is all set to go from June 5-7, 2019.

It will have a bigger and brighter format that clearly reflects the new sense of direction in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive global environment.

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The main camp of TTM + 2019. (Photo: Zhao Yipu)

Under the theme of “New Shades of Emerging Destinations”, the overall focus of TTM+ 2019 will be on Thailand’s emerging destinations nationwide - 55 provinces with spectacular beauty, heritage, cultural and culinary attractions. Thailand wants to showcase the provinces to Chinese, ASEAN, American and European tourism organizations.

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Yuthasak Supasorn, Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, giving a speech at TTM + 2019. (Photo: Zhao Yipu)

Yuthasak Supasorn, Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, said, “This year’s theme reflects a strong continuation of our long-standing strategy to promote our emerging destinations with the aim of creating jobs and distributing revenue nationwide, from major cities to local communities, while creating sustainability by balancing the number of visitors to the destinations.

“TTM + 2019 has attracted a total participation of 351 buyers, 371 sellers, and around 130 international and domestic media. Both international and domestic buyers will find these 55 emerging destinations perfectly suited to the needs of their clients, especially those who seek off-the-beaten-path holidays and repeaters looking for new products. In fact, we are already beginning to see results. In 2018, we recorded six million (6,223,183) trips by foreign tourists to these cities, a growth of +4.95 percent over 2017.”

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The main camp of TTM + 2019. (Photo: Zhao Yipu)

As of May 14, 2019, the TTM+ 2019 had registered 351 buyers from 51 countries. Of these 185 are repeaters and 166 are first-time buyers. By country, the largest number is from China (65) followed by the United Kingdom (29), India (23), Australia (18), Italy (15), USA (15), Russia (14), and Brazil (13). By region, buyers from the EU, Africa and Middle East comprise the largest contingent (136) followed by ASEAN, South Asia and the South Pacific (95), East Asia (79) and the Americas (41).

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The main camp of TTM + 2019. (Photo: Zhao Yipu)

The total of 371 registered sellers is dominated by hotels and resorts (278) followed by travel agents and tour operators (23), emerging destinations (20), entertainment (12), the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) (10), NTOs (10), associations (9), and others (9).

Yuthasak added, “Furthermore, as a small effort to make a big difference, we are striving to use less plastics in the TTM+ now and onwards as a part of responsible tourism development in Thailand. Proudly speaking, every Thai seller here is partly selected on an environmental concerned basis in line with our continuous effort to make the TTM+ 2019 a green event.”