Agencies line up for Thai travel brief

BANGKOK: The Tourism Authority of Thailand's (TAT) domestic and international accounts, valued at US$9 million combined, are up for review. Seven agencies are pitching for the international assignment and 11 are pitching for the domestic. However, incumbent agency Leo Burnett, which has held the account for six years, is not taking part in the pitch. According to Pornsiri Rojmeta, the managing director of Leo Burnett Thailand: "We decided it was time to take a break and allow other agencies to have an opportunity to work on this prestigious and important account." The surprise decision comes as a TAT source said that the review process would give some consideration to a controversial Government directive issued about six months ago, in which Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's office instructed state enterprises to hire Thai consultants instead of foreign ones in order to save money. That same month, TAT awarded a portion of the domestic account to small local agency Creative Juice, at the expense of Burnett. But the Prime Minister's office later issued a clarification, saying the directive was only a suggestion. The source said that multinational agencies would not be disadvantaged during the review process. "You have to remember, these are not foreign agencies. They may have international headquarters, but they are majority-owned by Thais and are staffed by Thais. They will get a fair chance. But we need to see if there are Thai agencies that can handle the work." Pornsiri, however, left the door open for project work. "We have indepth knowledge of, and experience in the tourism business - it would be a real shame not to draw on all that experience again."

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