TAT hopes to boost off-peak travel

The Tourism Authority of Thailand yesterday kicked off its Amazing Weekday campaign aimed at boosting tourism during the low season. The two-month campaign is expected to generate revenue of more than 500 million baht. Thawatchai Arunyik,the deputy governor for the domestic market, said the target groups for the campaign are retirees (numbering 7.4 million nationwide), housewives and business owners. The campaign is also focusing on first-jobbers, families and white-collar workers aged 25-39 (numbering 3.4 million). Designed specifically for Thais, the campaign is meant to help operators fill their businesses on weekdays, especially during the low season. "Amazing Weekday will also help increase the trip frequency for domestic travellers," said Mr Thawatchai. "We believe the continuing boost of domestic tourism will be key to meeting our tourism revenue target of 2 trillion baht by 2015." The TAT expects the number of domestic trips this year to increase by 6% to 104 million, generating revenue of 422 billion baht. As part of the campaign, more than 200 tourism operators nationwide - spas, hotels, restaurants and golf courses - are offering discounts of up to 55% to attract domestic tourists on weekdays (Monday to Thursday). Apart from revenue generated by the industry, the TAT expects the number of local trips to hit 200,000 during the two-month drive ending Sept 30. From bangkokpost