The concepts are “Local experience” – providing visitors with in-depth experience like community-based tourism and local identity; “Future challenge” – secondary cities have enormous potential to expand their economies and boost the income of the local people if the tourism industry is developed in a sustainable and well-planned manner; and “Connecting destinations” – connecting Thailand’s big cities with smaller cities as well as neighbouring countries.
To promote tourism in the country’s group of 55 secondary destinations, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has curated three concepts to help develop and market their tourism economies and cultural assets in an environmentally friendly way.
The concepts are “Local experience” – providing visitors with in-depth experience like community-based tourism and local identity; “Future challenge” – secondary cities have enormous potential to expand their economies and boost the income of the local people if the tourism industry is developed in a sustainable and well-planned manner; and “Connecting destinations” – connecting Thailand’s big cities with smaller cities as well as neighbouring countries.
These 55 secondary provinces fall within the “big picture” of Thailand’s development, and the goal is to create conceptual models that are specific to each secondary province – for example a sports city in Buri Ram and a wellness city in Chiang Rai.
According to research, there are more than 4,000 tourist attractions and over 8,000 accommodation units in these destinations in 2018. Yet, they get fewer than four million local and foreign tourists a year. A survey conducted by the TAT Intelligence Centre (TATIC) about travel trends showed that in the first half of 2018, the 55 destinations hosted more than 2 million foreign visitors, with Laos the biggest source market due to its shared border with Thailand’s northeastern city Nong Khai.
Other most visited destinations (hosting more than 100,000 tourists) include Udon Thani, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son. Therefore, the tourism market is ripe for further growth, and there is huge potential to make each destination unique.
TAT recently launched a campaign in October to promote low-carbon tourism in secondary destinations as well as create awareness of eco-friendly tourism. “Visit a Secondary City; Must Try, Must Love, Must Care” is primarily aimed at the Generation Y group of tourists – those born between 1980 and 2000 – who are tech-savvy, have the time and money to travel for both educational and experiential reasons, and also understand the importance of environmental conservation.
Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of TAT, said, “Tourism is now very important to Thailand’s economy as a source of jobs and income across various sectors, including small and medium-sized enterprises. At the same time, over-tourism can have an impact on the natural environment and climate. That is why TAT organised the ‘Visit a Secondary City; Must Try, Must Love, Must Care’ campaign to generate low-carbon tourism in secondary cities.
“Secondary cities are beautiful, full of culture and interesting activities. If we facilitate low-carbon tourism to these places, everyone can get involved in environmental conservation, reducing greenhouse gases and enhancing the value and uniqueness of each tourist attraction.”