Her Excellency Ms Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Minister for Tourism and Sports, Thailand was in India to relaunch Thainese campaign ‘Discover Thailand 2015’ to attract a million Indian travelers to Thailand.

“It is my pleasure to unveil our global marketing and promotion campaign 2015 Discover Thainess. We have just held our opening ceremony of 2015 discover Thainess at Bangkok in January. We are delighted to expand it now to India especially to Mumbai,” said Her Excellency Ms Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul.

She further added, “This campaign will emphasize with priceless treasures of Thailand which gives Thainess its charm and makes us unique as people in society and as a country.” The tourists to Thailand can experience the life, culture and hands on to activities like Thai boxing, Thai massage, Thai cooking and Thai classical dance. The lifestyle Thailand mostly involves providing handmade products and services which connects person to person around the globe.

Ms Soraya Homchuen, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand – Mumbai Office said, “I am sure that the Minister’s official stamp to the Discover Thainess campaign will add steam to our efforts to promote authentic Thai experiences in India through creative means that we will employ in the months ahead.”

Minister of Tourism and Sport, Thailand, Her Excellency Ms Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul while commenting on how India and Thailand are similar in cultural, economical, social and spiritual aspects said that “we are a family”. One of the most significant markets of Thailand is India, ranking 1 in South Asia and ranking 6 globally, apart from that there are china, Malaysia, Japan, Russia and Korea. She added, “In 2014, Thailand welcomed nearly 946,269 visitors because of the slight drop from the year 2013. However we expect to bounce back and welcome 1 million this time and this will make India into one of the fifth countries globally which generates one million act.” “India is one of the fast growing source markets for Thailand,” Ms Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul further added.

Indian tourists visit Thailand for client services, business meetings, family holidays and also for weddings and honeymoons. Last year about 100 couples came for their wedding in Thailand and brought about ten thousand people in Thailand as their wedding guests, which did a great impact to the Thai tourism.

Today, many Thai-Indian families are engaged into business in Thailand including most popular hotels in Bangkok. Thus they are playing a very responsible and constructive role into the development of Thailand. Just like Thailand, a lot of other countries around the world have now put tourism as the economic pillar of their countries. At Thailand’s International checkpoints, Indians are being provided the facility of visa on arrival and also there is no shortage of airlines capacity with 140 weekly flights with 30 thousand modern seats. The flight services between Thailand and India are being offered by Thai Airways, Bangkok airways, Air India, Jet Airways, Indigo Airlines, Spice Jet and Tashi Air which is Bhutan’s first private airline.

Indian leisure travellers generally go to Thailand for shopping and sightseeing in Bangkok and Pattaya. There has been a 60 per cent increase in the repeat travelers who head to Phuket, Simai, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Krabi, Authaya and Koh Chang. Thainese also must recommend the repeat travelers to take an hour of drive from main city to explore Trang Tien and Chumphon beaches which are considered the finest beaches of Asia. Meanwhile the other places like Nan, Lamphun and Khon Kaen brings the history and culture of Thailand.

In the year 2014 Thailand has also won tourism awards from India for Best Wedding Destination, Best Destination, Best International Tourism Board, Best Spa Destination and also the Best Value Destination.