TAT works hard to bring Japanese tourists back to Thailand

TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said on Thursday that from January 1 to September 20, as many as 166,709 Japanese tourists had entered Thailand, making them the 12th highest arrivals in the country.

“TAT aims to achieve the 350,000 target this year by launching several campaigns, including joining the Tourism Expo Japan 2022 [TEJ] in Tokyo this week,” he said.

This is the 34th time the annual TEJ expo has been organised by the Japan Association of Travel Agents and Japan Travel and Tourism Association, and the first in two years since the arrival of Covid-19.

The event gives tourism operators a platform to discuss business deals as well as promote attractions and packages to potential travellers.

The four-day event, which wraps up on Sunday, has booths from 63 countries, including airlines, and expects to attract some 200,000 visitors.

Seven hotels and three tour companies from Thailand have joined the event to present packages, products and services under the “Imakoso Thai E” (Now is the time to visit Thailand) campaign.

Yuthasak said TAT will also collaborate with seven Japanese tour companies, including HIS, JALPAK, JTB, NOE, TOBU Top Tour, NTA and Air Trip to promote travel packages to Thailand. The aim is to sell at least 10,000 packages in the last quarter of 2022.

The packages have been designed under the “COSMO” concept, which translates to:

• C = Corporate trip extension (offering extra free days of stay for corporate clients)

• O = Older tourists get to experience luxury

• S = Solo traveller privileges

• M = Me, Mom and More friends (discounts for those travelling with their mother or in groups of three or more)

• O = Outdoor sports.

In 2019, before the pandemic, some 1.8 million Japanese tourists visited Thailand, generating income of over 93 billion baht. The Japanese were the fifth highest foreign arrivals in Thailand. This number, however, dropped to 320,331 people in 2020 and 9,461 in 2021 due to Covid-19 lockdowns.