Thailand offers safe and easy-to-navigate destinations for independent women travellers

Keen to attract the increasing number of women outbound travellers from India, Thailand launches new campaign with a symbolic brand ambassador; MTV’s video jockey Anusha Dandekar representing the independent explorers.

Thailand has always remained one of the most frequently travelled overseas destinations for Indians. A record breaking 1 million Indian tourists travelled to Thailand in 2015. Now Thailand targets to make itself a premier choice for women travellers who escape together for short breaks and weekends, bachelorettes, kitty parties and holidays. This year, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) named August 2016 as a “month for women travellers” to celebrate Thailand Queen Sirikit’s birthday and rolled out various promotional campaigns to inspire women travellers from all over the world.

Double the share of women travellers

TAT in a recent event in Mumbai has announced the appointment of Anusha Dandekar as its brand ambassador in India. The hip, young Aussie-born popularly known as MTV’s VJ Anusha, was chosen for her inherent love for Thailand and the fact that she is symbolic of the exact segment that they want to target. “I have been to Thailand over 50 times during my career at MTV Asia – we shot there all the time and I’ve tried all the food. It’s one of my favourite places and despite having visited so many times, it never gets old for me,” Anusha told team TAT in a meeting that cinched the Brand Ambassador deal with the Indo-Australian Video Jockey, singer and actress.

Soraya Homchuen, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand – Mumbai office, says “Once a negligible proportion of Thailand’s market mix and only visiting on family holidays, today women travellers represent 30% of our arrivals from India. We would like to scale this up to 60-65% by 2022. We have done this effectively before with groups and independent travellers. About 5-7 years ago. A little less than a decade ago, Thailand was 80% GIT i.e., group inclusive travellers and only 20% FIT -free independent travellers – but today, FIT is about 60-70% while groups have a smaller share of the pie. With your support I am certain that we will be as successful with the women traveller’s segment.”

Anusha Dandekar – the new brand ambassador of India for TAT

Anusha Dandekar visited Thailand for the destination’s television commercial shoot and essentially experienced the thrills of a girly getaway in Thailand. She and the tourism board will be showcasing her adventures during the trip on social media besides traditional platforms for publicity.

70% pc of women prefer to travel with friends

Thailand is a perfect fit for the rising number of independent women travellers in India. According to a study conducted by Thomas Cook earlier this year, 70% of women today prefer to travel with friends than with their family. Moreover, studies have indicated that culture, cuisine, spa and wellness and shopping catch the fancy of women travellers worldwide, India being no exception. They have also been shown to prefer to travel without a tour manager and correspondingly prefer safe, easy-to-navigate destinations.

Thus, Thailand emerges as the perfect choice and the best fit for this segment because it meets all these needs effectively. From a long-term standpoint as well, focusing on women makes perfect sense because overall travel buying decisions are also increasingly shown to be taken by the woman of the house.

Various studies conducted in India and globally show that 70-80% of holiday decisions are taken by women. TAT believes that positive experiences in Thailand will lead women travellers to choose Thailand more often also for a family holiday in the future. An Amadeus study makes it even more valid when it reported that between 2011 and through 2020, the women traveller’s segment would have grown by an astounding 891 pc!