www.thailandtravelmartplus.com  Thailand's annual Tourism Festival and Travel Mart 2008 was held last week  at Challenger Hall, Impact Muang Thong Thani Exhibition Centre.

Already the biggest such event in the kingdom, the Thailand Travel Mart (TTM) 2008 Plus Amazing Gateway to Greater Mekong Subregion and Thailand Tourism Festival 2008 (TTF 2008) has grown steadily from being just a Thailand show to a regional show, targetted at both the trade and consumer.

According to TAT Governor Mrs. Phornsiri Manoharn, "This year, for the first time, the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) subregion is being incorporated into the event in line with the declaration of the ‘Visit IMT-GT Year 2008' at the 3^rd Summit in Singapore in November 2007.

The inclusion of both buyers and sellers from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand substantially enhanced the appeal and value of attending the show for both trade and consumers, she said.

The IMT-GT areas to be included were the provinces bordering the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. They include:

• Indonesia: Banda Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung , Riau Island, and Banka-Belitung.
• Malaysia: Kedah, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor, Negeri Semibilan, Kelantan and Melaka
• Thailand: Songkha, Satun, Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.

With their inclusion, this year's event will grew  to about 392 sellers from Thailand and the GMS countries, including 250 hotels and resorts, 32 travel agents and tour operators, 4 ecotourism and adventure operators, 6 wellness and spa, 6 airlines, 10 entertainment, theme park, culture show, 12 golf and other travel products and services, 6 associations and organisations, 16 companies from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and 50 companies from IMT-GT.

The event  was  especially important for the small and medium sized enterprises which do not have the large marketing budgets to afford participation in the major international trade shows. This year, 139 exhibitors were  SMEs, or 36% of the total.

For the domestic Thai consumers, the highlight was   the Thailand Tourism Festival, the country's largest travel and tourism showcase event that includes many activities to promote the preservation of Thai culture, traditions and local lifestyle with stage performances and demonstrations of local arts and crafts though four regional villages.

The summer months usually see a slight dip in international visitor arrivals, so this was a good time to promote domestic tourism. The event  featured many interesting activities such as Cultural and Community Life Tourism, Ecotourism, Adventure Tourism, Health Tourism and Tourism that follows the path of His Majesty the King's sufficiency economy concept.