The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) announced a joint campaign with Alipay, China’s leading digital payment platform operated by Ant Group, and online travel platform Fliggy, a part of Alibaba Group, marking TAT’s latest initiative to reboot domestic tourism and accelerate industry recovery after the Covid-19 lockdown.
Named Local Chinese Expats Domestic Travel Campaign, the joint campaign is the first-of-its-kind in Thailand specifically targeting and encouraging local Chinese expats to travel domestically and explore the Amazing Thailand, thus to create revenue opportunities for businesses in retail, hospitality, F&B and other tourism-related industries. The joint campaign is also part of the ongoing strategic collaboration between the government of Thailand and Alibaba Group to drive the development of the country’s digital economy in areas including tourism as well as e-commerce, training and digital logistics.
“The tourism industry has been hard hit by the pandemic and the lockdown. While international travel is yet to resume, promoting domestic travel is essential to industry recovery and the livelihood of businesses relying on tourist spending,” said Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of TAT. “This joint campaign marks the latest addition to the series of measures and initiatives recently introduced by the TAT to reboot domestic tourism.”
“Chinese expats living, working and studying in Thailand form an important market for us to actively engage to promote domestic travel. Alipay and Fliggy, as popular daily life and travel platforms among Chinese, are naturally the right partners to us. We are confident that the collaboration will bring the tourism industry to local Chinese expats and connect them with our merchants to create a unique and fun domestic travel experience,” he added.
Under the campaign, Chinese expats who live in Thailand and hold an Alipay account could enjoy exclusive deals offered by participating hotels when booking a domestic trip through Fliggy. With each booking made, travellers will be rewarded in the form of Alipay digital coupons which can be used nationwide and with participating hotels and merchants.
Cherry Huang, head of global travel in Alibaba Group said: “Thailand is one of the most popular Southeast Asia destinations among travellers from China, and its appeal extends to Chinese expats living in the country as well. As China’s largest digital payment platform, Alipay strives to support the daily life of Chinese living overseas through the Alipay local life platform.”
Participating hotels and merchants in the campaign include The Peninsula Bangkok, Banyan Tree Phuket, Conrad Bangkok, Klook, Central shopping malls, Central department store, Fly-Food and many more.
