THAILAND

Since the start of the pandemic, the entire Southeast Asia, a very popular region for Central European travelers, has closed itself off from tourism completely and has stayed closed for over a year. Thailand, whose 20% of GDP was generated from tourism before covid, was the first country in the region to experiment with reopening its borders to foreign travelers again. However, although the country was eager to welcome tourists back, the ongoing pandemic risk resulted in entry conditions set by the Thai government being very strict and seemed to change from one week to the next. In this atmosphere, the Tourism Authority of Thailand was looking for ways to promote the once very popular tourist destination and increase bookings among Central European travelers.

An integrated digital marketing strategy was created to reach the 3 goals:

1. To remind travelers of their favourite destination in Southeast Asia and boost their confidence in Thailand as a safe destination during the pandemic
2. Explain the complex entry rules of the Phuket Sandbox model in easy steps
3. Increase bookings to Thailand

The campaign was executed on the Czech and Slovak market with Pelikan.sk & Pelikan.cz, a top OTA in the CE region, with Pelipecky.sk & Pelipecky.cz, one of the most popular online travel magazines and via media partners.

Campaign activities were rolled out in 3 rounds:

1. Quiz competitions for Thai dinners and Thai massages were rolled out on a weekly basis via Pelikan’s social media in order to remind the traveler audiences of Thailand and mostly of Phuket’s most attractive locations.
2. Competition for a hotel stay in Phuket, introducing Thailand as a safe destination by promoting its safety and hygiene precautions and explaining the Phuket Sandbox model in detailed PR articles in the Pelipecky travel magazine.
3. Blogger trip to Phuket by one of the Pelikan’s marketing specialists with the aim to document the entire pre-arrival administrative process, the journey and experience of vacationing in Thailand and create detailed audiovisual and article reports which will serve as easy guides for Central European travelers wishing to travel to Thailand.

Attention was created through the partners’ most efficient marketing channels: social media, newsletters, Pelipecky travel magazine articles, Pelikan booking site homepage banners and push notifications; and through other media partners.

Thanks to the Pelikan blogger trip, the most comprehensive guide to travelling to Thailand was created on the Czech and Slovak market. The articles are updated regularly to reflect any changes to the entry conditions.

Over 1.5 million campaign impressions

Facebook reach 700.000
Instagram reach 300.000
Pelipecky content articles viewed 25.000x
Aktuality.sk PR article viewed 10.000x

Pelikan.sk and Pelikan.cz sales of flights to Thailand increased dramatically as a result of the campaign. When comparing the sales numbers with oficial numbers of International Tourist Arrivals as released by Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism in the campaign period September – November 2021, Pelikan bookings in Czechia & Slovakia represent over 10% of all arrivals from the whole East Europe region.