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ΗotelTravel.com added a Thai language section to its website this month. The announcement comes just after HotelTravel.com launched its Russian language section and marks the first time the company has added two new languages in the same month.
HotelTravel.com Chief Information Officer, Olivier Dombey, the company was poised to increase its Thai customer base that until recently made hotel reservations in English.
“We are delighted to direct them to our Thai language hotel pages as they clearly prefer to make reservations in their native language. Thai customers love to travel both overseas and domestically around Thailand. Most recently we’ve seen an increase in demand for hotels in Hua Hin, Chiang Mai hotels and hotels in Phuket from Thai nationals.
“We also expect increased bookings for Bangkok hotels during the New Year holiday as it remains the number one destination for Thai domestic travellers,” Mr Dombey added.
Thailand’s Director General of Department of Tourism said Thai nationals took an estimated 101 million domestic trips during 2010, an increase of over 17.3 % from 2009. Average length of stay was 2.6 days with an average expenditure of 1,737 (US$ 56) baht per day.
The Thai Agents Association (TTAA) said that the strength of the Thai baht versus the weak US dollar and Euro has also encouraged more Thai tourists to travel overseas during the year. TTAA said the number of total outbound travellers expanded to 5.5 million in 2010, an increase of 37.5% over 2009. It also generated revenues exceeding 250 billion Thai baht (US$ 8.15 billion).
Thai speaking customers now have access to thousands of pages loaded with original and user generated travel information only available on HotelTravel.com. Each page of HotelTravel.com’s unique content was translated by native Thai speakers, unlike other online travel websites that rely on auto translation tools to launch new language services. HotelTravel.com backs this up with its profession customer service centre staffed by highly trained native Thai speakers to assist with booking inquiries seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
