TAT teams up with Expedia, Unesco in pledge for sustainable tourism

[snoop1130]

TAT teams up with Expedia, Unesco in pledge for sustainable tourism

By THE NATION

 

Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Asia and South Pacific), Tourism Authority of Thailand, third from left, exchanges MoU with Jean-Philippe Monod, Vice President Government & Corporate Affairs at Expedia Group, third from right.

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Expedia Group, the global travel platform, in conjunction with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), are joining forces in an industry-first, world-wide initiative to launch the UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge.

 

It is part of a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Expedia Group and TAT, following a successful collaboration that began in September 2018.

 

This strategic tripartite agreement comes at an opportune time. In 2020, TAT will focus on building confidence for Thailand's tourism brands by encouraging and promoting responsible tourism to maintain the strong growth momentum of the Thai tourism sector.

 

TAT will also prioritise environmental sustainability and cultural vibrancy to position Thailand as a sustainable and preferred destination in accordance with its vision.

 

The agreement also supports the Thai government's leadership and commitment towards conserving the marine environment and addressing marine debris issues, in particular plastic waste across the Asean region.

 

Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Asia and South Pacific), said sustainability is top of mind for TAT as it gears up to mark its 60th anniversary in 2020.

 

"Collaborating with Expedia Group and Unesco will enable TAT to better incentivise business stakeholders and industry players to accelerate sustainable tourism development across the nation while supporting new travel experiences in emerging Thai destinations," he said. 

 

"TAT is committed to protecting the environment through its "Thailand Reduce Waste" initiative, which invites visitors and the tourism operators to reduce and eliminate single-use plastic that has significantly created waste in tourist destinations. It also promotes the use of organic materials that help save the earth and add value to local resources".

 

Under the Pledge, all parties are committed to supporting the reduction and elimination of single-use plastic while also promoting local culture and activities in Thailand.

 

"The reality is that everyone needs to play their part in protecting the planet and in protecting culture, and with 1.4 billion tourists on the road last year alone, tourism has a key impact," said Ernesto Ottone R, Unesco assistant director-general for culture. "The Sustainable Tourism Pledge aims to turn words into action. This partnership with Expedia Group and the pilot initiative with Thai tourism is about taking those steps to minimise waste in the tourism sector and to promote the role of culture for sustainable development. This is good for the planet, for communities and could be the start of something global".

 

Since the launch of the previous MoU, Expedia Group has worked closely with TAT to drive international demand to emerging destinations such as Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son.

 

These efforts have come to fruition as demand for accommodation in Chiang Rai through Expedia Group grew by 25 per cent year on year.

 

In particular, international travellers to Chiang Rai proved to be high-value customers as they spent 10 per cent more on daily accommodation, and about one third of inbound travellers booked four-or five-star hotels, which is 1.5 times more likely than domestic travellers.

 

In this renewed MOU, Expedia Group will support TAT's strategic goals in attracting high-value travellers (Go High), promoting emerging destinations to first-time visitors (Go New Customers) and generating more demand during low season (Go Low). These will include:

 

· Driving inbound and domestic tourism through sustained digital marketing campaigns.

 

· Identifying and promoting new tourism opportunities in Thailand.

 

· Leveraging industry experience, digital technology and big data to provide strategic advice on Thailand's tourism vision and plans, including shaping a sustainable national framework for Thailand's short-term accommodation industry, that Expedia Group is committed to leveraging its vacation rental brand -VRBO to advocate sustainable tourism in this sector.

 

· Promoting sustainable and responsible tourism in Thailand and creating environmental consciousness and encouraging sustainable practices in the tourism sector.

 

· Supporting the development of digital innovation and capabilities across Thailand's tourism industry in both primary and emerging destinations, especially in the accommodation and local activities sector.

 

· Promoting traveller safety and security in Thailand.

 

Ang Choo Pin, senior director for government and corporate affairs/Asia at Expedia Group, said the Pledge demonstrates Expedia Group's growing commitment to promoting sustainable tourism and enhancing environmental consciousness among our travel partners across the industry. He also said that Expedia Group is honoured to be collaborating with TAT and Unesco, both of whom are leaders in destination sustainability.

 

"Everyone has a responsibility to promote sustainable tourism to help preserve beautiful travel destinations around the world. We will work with the TAT and UNESCO to inspire and promote local tourism businesses. In particular, we will collaborate closely with the hospitality sector to enhance environmental and sustainable tourism consciousness and practices across Thailand," Ang added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30377649

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-10-22

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[wgdanson]

10 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Collaborating with Expedia Group and Unesco will enable TAT

to tell the truth.   LOL

[BuckBee]

best they team up with immigration and consulates first and get visas and entries organised so more tourist can enter easily and for longer durations .

[Mavideol]

21 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Everyone has a responsibility to promote sustainable tourism to help preserve beautiful travel destinations around the world. We will work with the TAT and UNESCO to inspire and promote local tourism businesses. In particular, we will collaborate closely with the hospitality sector to enhance environmental and sustainable tourism consciousness and practices across Thailand," Ang added.

all sounds great, it sure does (sarcasm).... but in order to have a sustainable tourism one needs to have tourists and keep them, no the case here, not many are coming.  Thailand has to understand their MAIN problem for lack of tourists is the high BAHT, depreciate the damn currency for God's sake how long it will take for them to understand the cause of their problem

[fforest1]

This article has more buzz words than you can shake a stick at....

[Cadbury]

 

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

TAT teams up with Expedia, Unesco in pledge for sustainable tourism

TAT is prepared to have incestuous marketing relationships with any organisation they can find who will prostitute themselves and get into bed with them. TAT will likely impregnate them with their false claims.

[PatOngo]

That has to attract 85 million tourists next year!

[FarFlungFalang]

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

"Everyone has a responsibility to promote sustainable tourism to help preserve beautiful travel destinations around the world.

Everyone includes everyone even new born babies and people in comas and people with severe mental disabilities and I know I'm not a responsible person so I'll respectfully disagree with such a ludicrous statement.Being a pedant and not a tourism promotor I think that's more inline with my responsibilities.With TAT involved I can't wait to see some more fabricated statistics from this newly formed team of experts!

[marqus12]

Friendship bridge between Laos and Thailand
is very popular among frequent returning travelers.

 

I think it deserves to be included in the UNSCO list
and promoted by Expedia .

[mok199]

I

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

This strategic tripartite agreement comes at an opportune time. In 2020, TAT will focus on building confidence for Thailand's tourism brands by encouraging and promoting responsible tourism to maintain the strong growth momentum of the Thai tourism sector.

 

Translation....we don't have a clue , we have never had a clue and honestly, we don't see any clues on the horizon...but the free seafood buffet was Amazing...

[neeray]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

He also said that Expedia Group is honoured to be collaborating with TAT and Unesco

What an absolute bunch of hogwash. It sounds like TAT did a pretty good job of sucking Expedia and UNESCO into their BS scheme and fake data.

Did anybody see them out and about certain places in Bangkok or Pattaya?

[overherebc]

14 hours ago, PatOngo said:

That has to attract 85 million tourists next year!

????

[Misterwhisper]

Purely a PR stunt. I have my doubts TAT even understands the meaning of "sustainable tourism". It is not bringing in several tens of millions of tourists and increasing that number by 2 to 3 million each year. I also is not "developing" more tourism facilities including entire hotel cities, destroying the environment in the process. Sustainable tourism is actually all about DOWNGRADING. Less is more.

[DLock]

That was painful to read.

 

Yet another grasp at partnering with anyone foolish enough to lend credibility and marketing to attract more tourists...and a little bit of lip service to "encouraging and promoting responsible tourism", which I don't even know what that means.

 

Lets make this simple. Lets choose a manageable location, say Phuket. Lets use Phuket as our case study and proof point that we can actually do what we speak about. And if/when we get it right, lets roll it our nationwide.

 

Fail.