Ever heard of “Exotic Usakhane” ?

MANADO (eTN) – The ASEAN Travel Forum event is always the opportunity to get updates on tourism performance and strategies from each country in Southeast Asia, and also to learn a lot about Southeast Asia’s latest available products. Let’s take Thailand for example. In Manado, Thailand provided to media the latest updates about the country’s tourism evolution.

Probably the most striking element of “Amazing Thailand” is the amazing rebound of tourism in this country. Whatever the depth of political or natural crisis hitting the kingdom, tourism always enjoys a speedy recovery. As stated by Sansern Ngaorungsi, TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) Deputy Governor for International Marketing for Asia and South Pacific during the ATF Press Conference: “Thai tourism has proven its ability to bounce back when faced with similar situations in the past. This is due to the uniqueness and quality of our tourism products and the strength of the Thailand brand, which has strong affinity with travelers all over the world. With people understanding that Thailand’s tourism infrastructure remains intact, we have seen the rapid restoration of tourist arrival numbers.”

Thailand expects now to finish the year 2011 with approximately 18.6 million foreign travelers, up by 20 percent compared to 2010 (based on figures for January-November 2011). For 2012, TAT estimates total arrivals to hit a new record with over 19.5 million foreign arrivals. TAT will focus its marketing strategy in 2012 by reinforcing its digital marketing efforts, promoting sustainable tourism – an “essential value” of current tourism trends, according to Ngaorungsi – highlighting new products and focused more on cultural tourism. The tagline, “Amazing Thailand Always Amazes You,” will further stresses the kingdom’s authenticity, value for money, and hospitality.

Among the new products, there is one which deserves close attention: “Exotic Usakhane – Cultural Heritage Routes of Southeast Asia.” On the TAT website, the product is available under exotic Usakhane. Do you wonder what “Usakhane” means? Most of the media present at the TAT presentation did. No, it has nothing to do with a new region to be promoted. It means only “Southeast Asia” in the Thai language.

The tourism project highlights cultural common heritage in ASEAN with a spiritual and religious background. Circuits have been created along all the big religions of the region, such as Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. Travelers can then follow tracks of heritage trails from Bangkok to Borobudur in Indonesia – from Thailand to the old kingdoms of Bagan (Myanmar), Angkor (Cambodia), and Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. Products also include the discovery of the Catholic heritage and churches in the Philippines, Islam civilization in Brunei, and the charms of old cities such as Luang Prabang, Hue, and Hoi An in Indochina.

This is a great idea except that there is a slight flaw to the project: the incomprehensive name – only understood by Thai people – and its consequent lack of visibility. Who will spontaneously go to the exotic Usakhane home page on the TAT website to look at ASEAN spirituality’s circuits? Asked why it was given the “Usakhane” name to the project, Mr. Ngaorungsi gave a few confused answers, such as: “this is a project from ASEAN, targeting intra-ASEAN travel.” All right… but would he expect that Filipino or Indonesian travelers would better understand the “Usakhane” meaning than Western travelers for example? This should be proved.

In fact, promoting the product to ASEAN travelers is also probably hitting the wrong target. There are certainly Southeast Asian tourists looking at culture. But this is still rather a niche market today. As an example, Thai travelers going to Manila feel rather more excited by strolling around the capital’s shopping malls than the churches. The product might indeed be more attractive to European travelers, who generally feel more curious with Asian cultures and heritage. “Usakhane” seems then to bear the “signature name” to the main financial sponsor to the project: Thailand, probably with the complicity of public servants from Thailand Ministry of Tourism who failed to look at the accuracy of choosing such a name. Mr. Ngaorungsi promised then to look back at the name and maybe enlarge the audience of its confidential “Exotic Usakhane.”