A group of 20 people including five travel and gourmet Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) as well as program hosts of four mainstream television stations from Thailand have been touring Macau since March 6, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said in a press statement.
The group came by invitation of the local tourism authority following the plan from the office to promote Macau abroad.
This is the first post-pandemic international familiarization group comprising Thailand influencers and media to arrive at Macau with a travel trade delegation from the same country to be also arriving in mid-March for inspection and business networking.
MGTO noted that by arranging for delegation visits from different sectors in Thailand, the office aims to ignite Thailanders’ interest in Macau as a preferred destination, aiming to diversify visitor source markets for tourism and economic revival.
The delegation, who is on a four-day visit, visited not just the world heritage sites and the tourism facilities of several major integrated resorts, but also the Macao Grand Prix Museum, MinM Plaza, Maritime Museum, Macau Tower, and Macau Fisherman’s Wharf.
They also sampled different culinary treats as part of the bid of Macau as a Creative City of Gastronomy.
According to MGTO, the invited Thai KOLs and TV stations have a base of around 31 million followers on social media, hoping that their online posts and TV travelogues about travel in Macau can induce trending topics about the city in Thailand with extensive marketing impact.
Pre-pandemic, in 2019, Macau registered over 150,000 visitor arrivals from Thailand, which ranked as the 10th larger contributor of visitors to Macau.