To stay connected with the bloggers and social media influencers of India who otherwise keep travelling to various parts of Amazing Thailand and share their amazing experiences round the year, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) India Offices, New Delhi and Mumbai, conducted a video contest called #ThrowbackThailand where all top bloggers and social media influencers of India participated. TAT wanted to convey to the social brand ambassadors their importance in promoting a destination to the audience.

During the last week of May 2020, the contest was thrown open to all  Indian bloggers and influencers. They were asked to create a video/photo story from their stock materials of previous trips to Thailand, a story that gives a throwback memory. With more than 100 entries, including from many top/award-winning ones; the contest reached out to over 2.4 million people across India.

Vachirachai Sirisumpan

The pan-India contest saw participants and winners from all over India.  After a very careful process of multiple layered selection considering both quality and engagement, the winners were picked by the selection committee. The winners received GoPro Hero 8 Sports and Action cameras and other attractive gifts along with the certificates.

“This activity was conceptualised keeping the millennial in mind, considering that they would be the early travellers once situation normalises. I would like to congratulate all the winners who have shared their bond with Amazing Thailand by creating some beautiful videos and made Thailand as ‘Top of the Mind Destination’,” says Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director – TAT (New Delhi) on the response to the contest.

Cholada Siddivarn

‘‘Congratulations and thanks a lot to all the bloggers who kindly shared their experiences while they were in Thailand with us. Although the world has experienced several pandemics, through all dystopia and new normals, life in Thailand never went out of style. We are very well adept with our daily life to the next level of the new normal,’’ adds Cholada Siddivarn, Director – TAT (Mumbai).

The five Grand Winners shared their experiences on the excitement of participating in the contest and how they see post-pandemic travel and Amazing Thailand as a preferred destination.

Rajat Kapoor from Chandigarh said, “I really miss travel & going out for shooting. It was like sunshine in this ongoing dark phase.” Madhurima Chakraborty from Bengaluru said, “I scoured through the footages from my many trips and found a beautiful Persian cat swinging on a hammock at a Thai fishing village. I want to travel all the way to that island, and shoot the cat with my grand prize!” Amit Singh from Gurugram commented, “I feel happy and honoured but more importantly I am glad that people believed in my video which depicts Thailand as the first destination to be visited post-Covid-19.” Manjulika Pramod from Faridabad said, “The competition gave us a chance to take a break from the grim news, all around.” Tanayesh Talukdar from Kolkata concluded, “It was a time-machine travel while I was going through gigabytes of images and video clips stored for years and the climax was when I saw my name as one of the winners.’’