By: April Cole
I’m back from my trip to Thailand and I have so many things to tell you that it’s hard to put it all down in a blog post! I figured I’d start with one post by giving you a brief overview of the Thailand Travel Mart event.
The Travel Mart was a gathering of Thailand hotel representatives, tour operators and travel agents from all over the world. I had about 40 meetings over the two-day conference where I met with many of the hotels that we currently work with. It was wonderful to get to have face-to-face meetings with those I hadn’t met with before, as well as reconnecting with those I had met on previous Thailand trips. At these meetings we basically just went over what we’ve done in the past year and our hopes for the upcoming year, as well as details about our expectations of quality and service for our guests.
I also had the chance to get to meet with some new properties. There are a few properties that are simply amazing and I’m really excited to be offering them for our future guests. Each property had something different to offer, whether it is a simple beachfront property on a small island off of Phuket, or a new luxury property in Bangkok, which will be a great alternative to the classic Oriental or Peninsula. There were also some new properties that were simply – bad! One hotel actually mentioned that they had discovered some gorgeous natural hot springs just two minutes from their property (me, hmmm, natural hot springs in walking distance sounds nice). Then they mentioned that they thought it was too hot so they cooled them down (me: destroying natural hot springs as a matter of convenience for travelers, not nice).
Over all I found the Travel Mart very informative and absolutely inspiring. I came away from the conference with an extended knowledge of the properties in the region, new ideas for locations and tours for our guests, and new friendships with partners. I am very grateful for the invitation from the Tourism Authority of Thailand to this event, and I look forward to attending in future years.
