Berlin, 9 March, 2017 – The Tourism Authority of Thailand and Lufthansa City Centre (LCC), one of Europe’s largest groupings of individually-owned travel agencies, signed an MOU to promote Thailand as a “Destination of the Year”.
The marketing pact will help Thailand gain valuable exposure across the LCC’s massive network of online and offline channels across Germany and Europe.
The agreement was signed on 8 March, 2017, at the ITB Berlin by Mr. Tanes Petsuwan (seated, right), TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Americas), and Mr. Klaus Henschel (seated, left), LCC’s Managing Director. The event was witnessed by H.E. Mrs. Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, Mr. Kalin Sarasin, Chairman of the Board of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, Mr. Hasso von During, LCC’s Managing Director, and Mr. Uwe Muller, LCC’s Managing Director.
Following the MOU signing, the TAT LCC Meet & Greet networking session took place at the Thailand Stand, allowing Thai exhibitors to meet and generate a business prospect with more than 80 representatives of LCC’s offices.
LCC is an international organisation of individually-owned travel agencies, which combine the flexibility and competence of independent travel agencies under the umbrella of a globally recognised brand name.
Lufthansa City Centre’s offices worldwide operate more than 650 offices in 80 countries by local entrepreneurs linked to the headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany through a comprehensive franchise agreement. The LCC franchise system is based on a co-branding approach allowing each franchisee to maintain their individual identity whilst adding the quality seal “Lufthansa City Centre“.
The TAT-LCC joint project puts an emphasis on ‘Thailand as a “Destination of the Year”. It includes a broad range of marketing initiatives, and Thailand’s exposure on LCC’s activities as well as its communication platforms; such as, LCC Amazing Thailand ITB Meet & Greet, LCC Regional Meeting in Thailand, LCC magazine and movie online, a fam trip to Thailand, and so on.
Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor said, “This MOU is part of our strategy to forge a strong networking partnership with like-minded organisations in key source markets; such as, Germany and Europe. Arrivals from Germany in 2016 were up 9.42 percent to 833,573, making Germany the third largest source of visitors from Europe while visitors from European countries were up 8.87 percent to over 6 million in 2016.”
Mr. Yuthasak added, “Although the Asia-Pacific is now generating the largest numbers for Thailand’s tourism, the European markets remain by far the most important in terms of average length of stay. In 2016, European visitors spent an average of around 17 days per trip in Thailand, almost double the overall average of 9.56 days, which generated 12.26 billion Euros in revenue.”
In 2017, TAT is targeting an increase of tourism revenue by 9.09 per cent over last year from the European market.
Mr. Yuthasak said he looked forward to establishing a strong, win-win partnership with the LCC Group.
