Northstar

32 | www.travelweekly-asia.com DESTINATION: THAILAND THAILAND CLOSES YEAR WITH A SMILE It has been one of Thailand's best years in terms of tourist arrivals. Despite setbacks from political tension and the downtown Erawan Shrine bombing in September, Thailand welcomed its 24 millionth visitor at the end of October, and less than two weeks later welcomed its 25 millionth visitor at the start of the peak season of 2015. Not only that, 10 days later visitor numbers surged from 25 million to 26 million – so when Tommy Jeppsson of Norway stepped off his plane in Phuket on November 20 as the 26 millionth visitor, he was surprised with a grand welcome ceremony which Thailand has been offering its last few "millionth" visitors. And if predictions hold true, Suvarnabhumi itself is looking By Alisha Somanas at nearly 25 million passengers passing through within the next six months, boosting its status as one of Asia's busiest airports. Thailand has taken on stricter policies towards overstays, but also strives to make it easier for arrivals with a new online visa- on-arrival facility, applicable also to China whose citizens made up the majority of visitors to Thailand in 2015 with arrivals topping 7.4 million earlier this year. As the Tourism Authority of Thailand's projection of 28.8 million international visitors this year draws closer to fruition, it has also put force behind domestic tourism, targeting an annual domestic tourism revenue of Baht 1 trillion (US$28 billion) by the year 2018 and launching multiple travel campaigns for 2016 to stimulate local economies in secondary provinces. While cash-strapped Thai International Airways spent the year floundering from month to month and breaking its record in losses, six additional airlines have made Suvarnabhumi their port of call, among them three new to Thailand: Chongqing Airlines, Eurowings and Mega Maldives Airlines. Domestic and budget airlines continued to spread their wings – Air Asia, Thailand's largest low-cost carrier introduced new routes to India, Laos and Vietnam, and Nok Air's international service linked itself to Hanoi, Yangon and Hefei. Thailand's hotel scene also saw the launch of Diethelm Preferred's tour & travel service, Mövenpick's expansion to Pattaya in December, while next year will see Thailand's first Park Hyatt hotel downtown, with Best Western hinting at expansion into Thailand and Thai-based Banyan Tree Spa indicating plans to grow more than 100 branches and expansion to nearby regions. After hosting Asia's first ever Travel Bloggers' Exchange (TBEX) in October, and the Amazing Thailand Luxury Fam Trip and Trade Meet in November, Thailand is kicking off its tourist season with the Phangan Colormoon Festival in the Gulf of Thailand on December 9-13 and the five-day 36th Thailand Tourism Festival (TTF), on January 13-17, 2016 in Bangkok, which will provide visitors with first-hand experiences of what each region has to offer. Thailand is indeed smiling, as evidenced by the new Amazing Thailand logo unveiled at the World Travel Market (WTM) 2015, in which the two "A's" in "Thailand" have been re-designed to look like a pair of smiling eyes, and paired with a "smile" symbol beneath to form a person's smiling face. Suvarnabhumi Airport, growing into one of Asia's biggest. Photo Credit: Tomgigabite/iStock TWA TAKE In 2016, Thailand hopes to strike the perfect balance between tourism growth and sustainability, a strategy focused on enhancing visitor expenditure rather than growing visitor numbers, providing value-added products and services, and motivating visitors to stay longer and spend more.

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