Thai Tourism Promotion in Penang and Kuala Lumpur

By Anthony Tan email: micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

The annual Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) tourism promotion mini Travel Mart road shows to Penang and Kuala Lumpur saw 35 sellers from 27 hoteliers, seven travel agents and one airline came to meet the Malaysia travel trade buyers.

The Thai tourism industry groups were representing tourism destinations from Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Phangnga, Krabi, Surat Thani and Chiangmai to promote new tourism products and packages to the Malaysian travel agents and updating the travel writers as well.

The only airline that participated this time is Bangkok Airways as they are introducing a daily flight from Kuala Lumpur to Koh Samui starting April 1. (For more details log on:

http://airlinesairportsmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/02/bangkok-airways-to-fly-koh-samui-kl-koh.html)

Among some the hotels that were present were Khaolak Laguna Phangnga, R-Mar Resort and Spa in Patong, Phuket, Railay Bay Resort in Krabi, Ban Thai Beach Resort & Spa in Patong, Phuket, Cape Sienna Hotel & Villas from Phuket, Aonang Princeville Resort and Spa from Krabi and a few others.
A-1 Hotels were busy promoting their hotel properties in Bangkok and Pattaya including one located near Suvarnabhumi Airport

.Peach Group presented their three resort properties in Phuket with Peach Hill Hotel & Resort, Andaman Cannacia Resort & Spa and Peach Blossom Resort.

One regular travel agent that participated in the road show is Charn Wongsatayanont from Phuket Jet Tours Co Ltd, who comes to meet his old business contacts and to establish new ones every year.

Charn Wongsatayanont (right) with travel writer Laura Lee (left) and outbound travel operator Jason Lim, MD of GTT - KL

Discovery Holidays Co, Ltd and Group Company with its head office in Bangkok were busy at its promotion desk with Malaysian Travel Agents seen waiting for their turn to discuss business opportunities with the company’s reps.

TAT officials informed the attendees that Thailand had recovered from the severe flooding toward the end of last year and tourism products and attractions are back to normal operation.

For year 2011, Malaysian recorded the top arrival to Thailand with 2,470,686 tourists with an increase of 19.98% and for the first timer visitors saw an increase of 200%. Repeat Malaysian visitors to Thailand were recorded at 60% of the total arrivals.

The average spending per Malaysian tourists in Thailand was recorded at USD128.76 per day.

After the business was done, TAT invited the guests to a dinner in the evening filled with Thai cultural dances, a video show on Thailand tourism product update and ends the night with a lucky draw consisting of many holiday packages to Thailand.

Lucky people win prizes to Thailand

Amazing Taste of Thailand 2009 launched in Bangkok

These deep fried fresh water prawns served at Kungpen Restaurant in Suphanburi were real YUMMY. Our table cleaned up the plate.

This deep fried snake-head fish tasted so good that no one from our table bothered to find out what is a snake-head fish?

One of the overseas participants of the Amazing Taste of Thailand trying his hand to whip up a Thai dish at Kungpen restaurant

This traditional designed wooden river boat ferried our group across the Chao Phraya River to the Supatra River House Restaurant

Our group learning how to cook Thai dishes at the renowned Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant in Bangkok


We also learnt how to prepare the popular red ruby dessert or Thabthim Krop (diced water-chestnuts in coconut cream and syrup)

Travel writer Laura Lee with the two Thai chefs Charles and Songsak of the Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant in Bangkok

Our KL-based Japanese writer (left) and other participants for the cooking class were given each a certificate of attendance, souvenir apron and goodie bag by Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant in Bangkok

Don't be mislead as this green curry dish which can be quite spicy

The deep fried chicken wrapped in screwpipe leaf is a popular Thai dish

The Thais are not only good in food preparation but are also good in their presentation. Don’t you think this tray of Khanom Lok Chub dessert looks inviting?

Amazing Taste of Thailand, the marketing power tool for Thai Tourism
By Anthony Tan

It is not uncommon for tourists to ask these questions, Where to eat? What to try? It is always the familiar tastes that will strike their minds first. In Thailand, you don’t need to ask, "What to eat?” It is simply one too many to eat, for the Thai cuisine.

When it comes to Thailand, almost everyone from all corners of world knows “Tom Yam”. This dish has become synonymous with Thailand.

Realising this, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) decided to capitalise on the global popularity of this Thai dish to further strengthen its tourism promotion and increase tourist arrivals into the kingdom.

In Bangkok, two major food events - Amazing Taste of Thailand and Thailand Brand – have been organised to be held concurrently in September.

They were jointly organised by TAT, Department of Export Promotion, Thai Hotels Association, Association of Domestic Travel and the Thai Restaurant Association.

The owners, managers, chefs of overseas Thai restaurants, famous chefs, food critics and travel agents from various parts of the world were flown into Bangkok for this occasion to take the authentic taste of Thai cuisine beyond the kingdom.

Based on the statistics from Thailand's Ministry of Commerce, plans are afoot to increase the 13,000 locations of Thai restaurants overseas in 2009 to15,000 in 2010.

The many Thai restaurants established beyond the shores of the kingdom range from simple fast-food take-aways to upmarket specialised Thai cuisine outlets.

Some are operated by the Thais themselves while others are by foreigners who simply believe that Thai cuisine is the way to go into food business.

Many of these restaurants have also been set up by Thai expatriates living abroad in their adopted country.

More than 500 media organisations from 22 countries were invited by TAT oversea offices to the launch of these two events.

From Malaysia, nine media and a hotelier were led by TAT officer Somboon in Bangkok to witness the launch of the Amazing Taste of Thailand at Central World in Bangkok.

Our group was taken to Suphanburi, which is about a two-hour drive by coach from Bangkok.

Since our trip is all about discovering the Amazing Taste of Thailand, we were taken to this Thai restaurant called Kungpen at Paknam Web in Suphanburi. We met the invited overseas media fam groups here.

Working with this restaurant, TAT had put up a showcase of Thai cuisine with food sampling and cooking demonstrations on how to prepare some of these traditional and popular Thai dishes and drinks.

After our sumptuous lunch, we were invited to participate in the cooking demo. Recipes of the Thai cusine showcased here were readily available for us to take back home.

Our group was also introduced to an upmarket restaurant, Supatra River House that served Thai and seafood cuisine in Bangkok as part of our itinerary.

We had to plough through Bangkok’s traffic jam before arriving at the Maharaj pier along the Chao Phraya River to board the boat to take us across the river to this two-storey traditional building by the river bank near the Temple of the Dawn.

A look at its a la carte menu showed the dishes priced between 120 and 750 Baht. The set lunch cost 900 Baht per person while the price of the set dinner ranged from 900 to 1,500 Baht.

Another highlight of our media fam trip organised in conjunction with the Amazing Taste of Thailand launch was where all the invited guests from 22 countries had their culinary skills put to test when we were made to cook their own dinner at the famed The Blue Elephant cooking school and restaurant at South Sathorn Road in Bangkok.

Our group had to prepare four dishes after watching the chefs' demonstrations. We started with satay kai (chicken satay with peanut sauce), which was nothing new to us Malaysians. We are learning to prepare it in a foreign land!

The other dishes we were taught were Koong Prik Paow (stir-fried prawn with chilli paste), Kaeng Phed Ped Yang (roast duck curry) and Laab Pla Tod (deep-fried fish salad with green apple).

With all these spicy stuff, learning to prepare the dessert, Tup Tim Grod (water chestnut in coconut milk) was most welcome.

All the participants were each presented with a certificate to take home. We were also allowed to take back as souvenir the apron we wore.

Most of members in our group agreed unanimously that we had one of our best Thai cuisine meals from this intensive cooking class.

The highlight of our media fam trip was to attend the official launch of "Amazing Taste of Thailand" at CentralWorld which featured unique foods and drinks from each region of the Kingdom and link them with the travel experiences for tourists.

Food from some of the best restaurants throughout the entire Thai kingdom together with ready-to-eat meals (heat and eat), export quality frozen foods were also featured. Cooking competitions from each region featuring famous menus of movie stars and celebrities at the festival were conducted as well.

TAT hosted the grand finale dinner for the international invited group at Centara Grand; Bangkok Convention Centre together with a cultural show to entertain the guests.

A sideshow was organised by TAT at the same convention hall to showcase “Thailand Brand”of products. It successfully attracted the attention of the guests. Many of them bought what was on display to take home as souvenirs.

TAT must be congratulated for a job well done!