Charamporn Jotikasthira (front row, fourth from left), president of Thai Airways, presented a flower bouquet to Claudio Ranieri (front row, third from left), manager of Leicester City FC, and Wes Morgan, captain of the football team, and other members of the football team
OUTBOUND tour operators in Thailand are seeing stronger marketing potential in English football club tours, as newly crowned Premier League champion Leicester City has sparked off a massive fan following in Thailand owing to its Thai connections.
Leicester City FC is owned by Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who is also the CEO and founder of Thailand’s duty-free shop King Power.
Arthit Kiatbenchaphong, sales manager of Bonus Travel, is expecting the Leicester craze to boost sales of the company’s existing FC programmes.
“We normally offer tours to the stadiums of UK’s most famous FCs such as Chelsea or Manchester United, which always make a lot of sales,” he told TTG Asia e-Daily.
While there is no exact plan on Leicester tour packages yet, Arthit believes the victory of the underdog team will make this particular route more popular. “We have no demand or request for Leicester’s stadium tour yet, but we plan to launch that soon,” he added.
Meanwhile, Double Enjoy, which specialises in football tour packages, will soon add Leicester to its list of football stadiums in the UK due to the club’s immense popularity among Thai fans now, according to sales supervisor Pattaraporn Paku.
She said: “It is quite recent that Leicester won the league. I still have nothing specific planned for Leicester just yet, but I am sure it will become one of the hottest destinations in the near future.”
Leicester could also be leveraged as a new selling point for Double Enjoy’s private group tours of English FCs, she added.
By Nicholas Yong
