Around 50 outbound travel agencies from Thailand had the opportunity to be informed about the opportunities in sending Thai travellers to Greece combined with other Schengen countries.
The Hellenic-Thai Chamber of Commerce (HTCC) participated last Monday 13 February 2023 at a presentation of Greece as a tourist destination. The presentation was delivered by a delegation of a Greek travel agent.
Around 50 outbound travel agencies from Thailand had the opportunity to be informed about the opportunities in sending Thai travellers to Greece combined with other Schengen countries.
In her welcome address, Mrs Alexandra Christodoulea, Economic & Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in Bangkok, mentioned that “Both our counties are famous for their unique landscape, their pristine beaches and lovely weather, their gastronomy and diverse cuisine, their culture and hospitality. With so much in common, we definitely can achieve better cooperation in the field of tourism and increase significantly our presence in the tourist markets.”
The Chairman of the Hellenic-Thai Chamber of Commerce, Mr Thanasis Tsepisis addressed the participants presenting the role of HTCC in supporting Thai and Greek companies which want to do business together.
The B2B event was organized by TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific and supported by the Thai Travel Agents Association, the Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in Bangkok, and the Hellenic-Thai Chamber of Commerce.
The participants had the opportunity to taste Greek food and wines provided by the Olive Greek Mediterranean Restaurant in Bangkok and the importing company M Dynamics Asia Co., Ltd.
Theodore Koumelis, Publisher & Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific, and Founding Member of the Hellenic-Thai Chamber of Commerce stressed the potential of business between Thailand and Greece regarding tourism and food products mentioning that “Since 2012, we are working together with Greek travel companies as well as with Thai importers to leverage the business opportunities between the two countries. We have seen a significant increase in outbound from Thailand to Greece as well as an increase in imports of Greek food products in Thailand. Our scope was and still is to bring the two countries closer together through tourism and gastronomy”.
“In the post-pandemic crisis period that we are gradually entering, the tourism sector is one of the most steadily and constantly developing sectors of the world economy. After a period of great constraints, tourism is gradually recovering and touristic flows are constantly growing,” said Alexandra Christodoulea.
“Tourism in Greece, exactly as tourism in Thailand, has been a key element of the economic activity in the country and one of the country’s most important sectors. Exactly as Thailand in Asia, Greece has been a major tourist destination and attraction in Europe, since the 1960s mostly due to its rich culture and history, as well as its long coastline, many islands, and beaches. Both our counties are famous for their unique landscape, their pristine beaches and lovely weather, their gastronomy and diverse cuisine, and their culture and hospitality. With so much in common, we definitely can achieve a better cooperation in the field of tourism and increase significantly our presence in the tourist markets.
Both our countries were attracting a significant number of visitors pre-pandemic: Greece attracted as many as 33 million visitors in 2019, making my country one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world, and contributing to approximately 25% to the nation’s GDP. Exactly like Thailand, which attracted around 40 million visitors, contributing around 20% of its GDP in 2019. An estimated number of 15.000 tourists from Greece visited Thailand in 2019 and a comparable number of Thai tourists visited Greece. Those numbers were having increasing tendencies before Covid reduced them to almost 0. These numbers speak eloquently about the importance of tourism in both of our countries before Covid. Both our countries have gone through a period of reduced tourist flows, that was detrimental to the rest of the economy, but opened up gradually and carefully when they felt the pandemic situation allowed it, and, now, are attracting increasing tourist interest, leading to the recovery of their tourism industry.
It is my belief that we can achieve a lot more than returning to the pre-pandemic levels. We need to reintroduce our counties to the potentially interested public and diversify the touristic product we offer, in order to attract more and better clientele. There is an increased interest to diversify both the traditional destinations, as well as the types of tourism and both our counties receive interest for conventional tourism, as well as specialized forms of tourism, such as medical tourism, luxury tourism, cruises, religious tourism, ecotourism and conference tourism. In this common goal, an intensified contact and efforts like this event prove the determination of both our countries to enhance our relations and deepen our exchange.
Of course, we can do better, and that is precisely why we are all here today. We should further diversify our product portfolio in the Thai market, more effectively promote our diverse forms of tourism, and more efficiently approach and enter the market in Thailand. Within this framework, I would like to stress once again that the Office for Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Embassy of Greece in Bangkok, continuously supports the efforts of Greek companies to enter the Thai market. Our ambitious but attainable goal is to bring Greece closer to Thailand in the mind of all interested parties and we are here to assist this effort in any way we can.”
Tatiana is the news co-ordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy. She holds a Bachelor degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
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