Norway on incentive agenda

Scandinavian Tourist Board will tap the Thai incentive market now that Thai Airways International has increased services to Oslo,  Norway, from five weekly to daily non-stop services.

THAI has also replaced its A340-500 aircraft, previously used on the Bangkok-New York route, with a B777-200ER, which offers more economy class seats. It has 30 seats in Royal Silk Class and 262 seats in economy class. The flight departs Bangkok at 0005 and arrives in Oslo at 0645. The return flight departs at 1330 and arrives in Bangkok at 0620.

A Scandinavian workshop was held at Centara Grand Hotel at Central World, last week, to promote company incentives from Thailand.

Scandinavian Tourist Board managing director, Soren Leerskov, said: “Our marketing plan depends on the airlines because this market is very price sensitive. If pricing is right, we can tap the incentive market.”

STB promotes three Scandinavian destinations — Denmark, Sweden and Norway mainly through B2B channels including Thailand’s retail travel agency network.

He said that there were about 15,000 incentive travellers visiting Scandinavia from Thailand annually, which is roughly half of  the visits including business and leisure travel. Incentive groups usually have 40 people visiting for eight days.

The main Asia Pacific markets for Scandinavia are Japan, China, Korea and Australia, but visitors from Thailand and India are on the increase.

“Thai leisure tourists will travel around the three countries following the footsteps of King Rama V and up to the North; but incentive groups who are more prices sensitive are likely to stay in the capital cities,” he concluded.