BANGKOK, 9 October 2023: The #OpenThailandSafely communications campaign by Khiri Travel and partners has won the 2023 WiT Travel Changemakers Award in the Local Community Engagement category.
The campaign was launched in March 2021 to safely reopen Thailand to visitors after its tourism economy had been decimated by the shutdown of international travel due to Covid-19.
at the Web in Travel (WiT) conference in Singapore, 3 October.
OpenThailandSafely was launched in early 2021 as the vaccine rollouts were picking up pace and tourism economies such as the Maldives and Greece were reopening. The central idea was to allow vaccinated tourists back into Thailand without subjecting them to quarantine.
The campaign, created by Khiri Travel in Thailand and supported by 60 travel industry companies and organisations, received 12,323 supporting online signatories.
The Thai government announced the reopening of Phuket from 1 July 2021 and other provinces from 1 October 2021.
“We don’t necessarily claim that Open Thailand Safely had a direct impact,” said Khiri Travel CEO Willem Niemeijer. “But we believe ours was a bold and necessary voice. It spoke for thousands of employees who were too shy or scared to speak up. Open Thailand Safely spoke up for an industry and its people who were collateral damage.”
Khiri Travel’s brand director, Marsha Niemeijer, collected the Changemaker award earlier this month at Singapore’s Web in Travel (WiT) conference.
