TAT receives massive support from Indian social media influencers

Bangkok, 15 July 2020 – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) recently organised an online contest to stay connected with Indian social media influencers encouraging them to create a nice video or photo story from their stock of materials of a fond #ThrowbackThailand memory.

The one-week online contest, initiated by the TAT New Delhi and Mumbai Offices, represented a token of gratitude that TAT wanted to convey to Indian social media influencers. In a normal situation, they would usually travel to various parts of Thailand and share their experiences during the year. But this year, making trips to Thailand has not been possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director of the TAT New Delhi Office, said the activity was conceptualised with the Millennials in mind, considering that they would be the early travellers once the situation returned to normal. 

“We would like to thank all participants for joining this online event and keeping the spirit of travel and tourism moving during this challenging period,” Mr. Vachirachai said.

Taking place during the last week of May 2020, the online contest attracted over 100 high-quality unique entries, including many top award-winning ones. The contest was a huge success in terms of reaching out to the public through India’s social media influencer community, achieving more than 2.4 million impressions across the country.

After a very careful selection process considering both quality and engagement, the winners were picked by the appointed committee. Out of the hundreds of participants, five were selected as Grand Winners and each received a GoPro Hero 8 Sports and Action Camera while 10 were chosen runner-up winners who also received gifts.

Ms. Cholada Siddhivarn, Director of the TAT Mumbai Office, extended her warmest congratulations and appreciation to all social media influencers who participated in the activity and shared their memorable experiences of Thailand.  

“Although the world has experienced several pandemics, life in Thailand has never gone out of style. We are very adept at taking our daily life to the next level of the new normal. Thus, whenever travel resumes, Thailand will be waiting to welcome all tourists and social media influencers to enjoy the nature, culture, food, shopping and more”, Ms. Cholada said.

TAT’s pan-India contest saw winners from all over the country. The top 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.

Mr. Rajai Kapoor (Chandigarh): “I felt really proud when TAT selected me as a winner and recognised my work and efforts through the contest. I really miss travel and going out to shoot. The contest was like sunshine in this ongoing dark phase.”
https://www.instagram.com/rajatkapoor_rk/

Ms. Madhurima Chakraborty (Bengaluru): “I scoured through the footage from my many trips and found a beautiful Persian cat swinging on a hammock at a Thai fishing village. I want to travel back to that island, and shoot the cat again with my grand prize!” https://www.instagram.com/orangewayfarer/

Mr. Amit Singh (Gurugram): “I am happy and honoured but more importantly, I am glad that people believed in my video, which depicts Thailand as the first destination that should be visited post-COVID-19.”
https://www.instagram.com/desi_tourist

Ms. Manjulika Pramod (Faridabad): “The competition gave us a chance to take a break from the grim that is all around. The whole process of making the video brought out the best of my creativity while reliving the beautiful memories from Thailand.”
https://www.instagram.com/manjulikapramod

Mr. Tanayesh Talukdar (Kolkata): “It was a travel time machine while I was going through gigabytes of images and video clips stored for years. The climax was when I saw my name as one of the winners.”
https://www.instagram.com/tanayesh