Hat Yai (People’s Daily) – Thirty-five tour operators from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were hosted for a special trip and business networking session on Thursday to promote the tourism industry of five “emerging destination” provinces in South Thailand.

Organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand TAT), the "Trade Meet: Amazing Thailand FAM Trip from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore 2019” was held in Hat Yai city, which is one of the biggest cities of South Thailand.

The event is designed to promote the South Thailand provinces of Phatthalung, Trang, Satun, Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat, which are on the list of the 55 emerging destinations designated by TAT to promote responsible and sustainable tourism, create jobs and generate more equal distribution of income. 

The event also fits in with the objectives of promoting travel and tourism both within ASEAN as well as the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle sub-region. 

Thailand is very well connected by air, road, rail and sea with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Border crossing facilities have also improved. Low-cost airlines are opening new routes between the secondary cities of the region, and sea travel is being facilitated by ferry services. 

TAT has prepared three new routes in the Southern region to introduce the tour operators to new products targeted at health and wellness groups, women, incentive groups, nature lovers, and family and leisure groups.

The 35 invited tour operators met with 44 Thai sellers for a B2B Trade Meet and attended a market briefing by Klissada Ratanapruk, executive director, ASEAN, South Asia and South Pacific, and a product briefing by Nithee Seeprae, executive director of the Southern Region of TAT.

On Friday and Saturday, they are breaking into separate groups for visits to numerous cultural and natural attractions along the three selected routes in the five provinces. 

According to Yuthasak Supasorn, the TAT governor, “Promoting intra-regional travel is now becoming more important to ensure a better balance in the overall distribution of inbound visitor arrivals. This was part of our target objective in 2019 when Thailand was the chairman of ASEAN. All the requisite infrastructure is ready in these provinces, which makes it fairly easy to attract short-haul traffic, especially over long weekends and school holiday periods.”

In January – September 2019, arrivals into Thailand from Malaysia totaled 2.96 million, from Singapore 737,212 and from Indonesia 524,914. 

The "Trade Meet: Amazing Thailand FAM Trip from Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore 2019" in Hat Yai of Thailand. (Photos: People’s Daily)