(From left) TAT’s Tanes Petsuwan, Eva’s Golden Kou and Yuthasak Supasorn, and Eva’s Ken Chung at the signing ceremony
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) last week entered into a MoU with Taiwan’s Eva Airways Corporation to work on joint tourism promotion strategies that will boost visitor numbers from the US and Canada to the country.
TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said: “Eva Air is a vital link between North America and Asia as there are currently no direct flights from the US and Canada to Thailand. By working with Eva Air on tourism initiatives, we can help get word out about Thailand’s attractions and boost visitor numbers even more in 2017 and beyond.”
Eva Air currently operates 80 flights per week between North America and Taiwan. From Taiwan, passengers can connect with flights to Bangkok on the airline’s 26 weekly connections on the Taipei-Bangkok route, which was recently increased from 17 flights a week. Of the total passengers travelling on Eva Air’s Taipei-Bangkok routes, about 50 per cent are from North America and Europe.
Following the signing ceremony, a Project Implementation Workshop between Eva Air representatives and TAT directors from both the North America and Asia markets will be set up to discuss their marketing collaboration for both the long- and shorthaul markets.
TAT also has plans to open a new office in Canada to render services to Canadian tourists heading to the kingdom.
From January to November 2016, more than 1.2 million tourists from the Americas visited Thailand, 13.4 per cent more than the same period in 2015. Of this number, 859,838 travellers came from the US (up 12.3 per cent) and 216,768 from Canada (up 7.3 per cent).
