Samenvatting

This thesis is about establishing the possibilities for Thais Verkeersbureau on social media to get more exposure on the Dutch market and to generate more traffic to Thailand. Thais Verkeersbureau is the Dutch Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). TAT has its headquarters in Bangkok and has been promoting Thailand as a tourist destination for over 50 years.
The problem Thais Verkeersbureau is facing, is the lack of activity and awareness on social media. In order to get more exposure on social media, Thais Verkeersbureau need to have a clear plan with clear goals.
This thesis reviews the internal and external environment of Thais Verkeersbureau, the marketing mix and the social media statistics of today. Based on this research, the following research question will be answered: “What are the possibilities for Thais Verkeersbureau to enlarge their exposure on social media in order to generate more traffic to Thailand?”. As a result of this research a social media plan for Thais Verkeersbureau has been established.
Thais Verkeersbureau has a growing strategy, based on the confrontation matrix, in which it can use it strengths to work on the opportunities in the external environment. The threat of substitutes and competitors are relatively low, which gives Thais Verkeersbureau a great advantage.
Social media is deeply integrated in everybody‟s life nowadays. The main social media in the Netherlands are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and upcoming (new) social media are Google+, Instagram and Pinterest. The main focus of the social media is to share content like pictures, videos and news items with close friends and family. The main target group of Thais Verkeersbureau are families, couples/singles and retired people (or 50+). All these target segments are using social media, with the age group 25-39 being the biggest, although growth is stagnating. The older people, on the other hand, have a smaller group of active users, but is growing in numbers over the last few years.
While using social media it is important to establish some key factors like: make a clear plan/schedule to keep an overview, be clear in the posts, be active on social media every day and evaluate that activity, invite the people to interact with you and offer enough physical evidence to hook the Dutch potential tourist to go to Thailand.