A brief for the 30 million baht (US$1 million) domestic account is expected to be available to all agencies by mid-October. However, a date for the brief of the larger international business, estimated to be worth 300 million baht, has not yet been set.
The size of the account is much smaller than expected when news of the review first broke earlier this year (Media, 23 February).
Sources say this owes to the Kingdom’s uncertain political and economic climate.
In addition, once the business has been assigned, it is possible a regime change could trigger another review after the elections scheduled for December.
It is believed that the tourism briefs will ask agencies to reposition the Kingdom as a more upmarket destination, and dissolve the perception of Thailand as a preferred destination for sex tourists and backpackers.
The international portion of the account was formerly with Dentsu, while Creative Juice/G1 has handled the domestic business.
TAT’s ‘Amazing Thailand’ campaign, which was resurrected this year, has been running on-and-off to date. The highly successful campaign was launched in 1998 and drove tourist levels over the 10 million mark.
Furthermore, despite ongoing political turmoil and terrorism warnings, TAT aims to attract 14.8 million visitors this year and 15.7 million in 2008.