THAILAND. King Power International Group hosted a first-ever Chinese-language livestream on its duty free platform at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok earlier this month.
The event, held on 2 February, followed hot on the heels of Thai Prime Minister Sretta Thavisin’s 2 January announcement of a Thailand-China mutual visa exemption commencing in March. This prompted a renewed fervour for Thailand among Chinese tourists.
In January alone, 400,000-plus Chinese tourists visited Thailand, reaffirming China’s status as Thailand’s leading tourism source market.
The livestream marked the Festival of the Kitchen God, which falls one week before the Chinese Lunar New Year. The show was broadcast on King Power’s Chinese App (Thailand King Power Duty Free) and synchronised on Weibo and WeChat, attracting tens of thousands of Chinese consumers.
A King Power China market spokesperson said the livestream was aimed at reassuring Chinese visitors and demonstrating King Power’s readiness to welcome them. “In terms of product range and service quality, we aim to give all visitors a warm welcome to Thailand,” he commented.
He said King Power is leveraging technology and creative marketing approaches to improve the service experience for Chinese visitors.
“Livestreaming is a fast-growing marketing approach, enabling online interaction with consumers and promotions aimed at encouraging them to spend online via the platform, effectively boosting views-to-sales conversion,” he said.
“Our technology partner, Jessica’s Secret, has provided us with a multi-functional livestreaming platform, enabling online purchases, giveaways, interactions and simultaneous livestreams.
The travel retailer and Jessica’s Secret have created two livestream formats – ‘King Power Live’ and ‘Brand Sessions’ – with brands able to promote through either format.
A King Power China Area Manager said: “Digitisation is the future development trend of travel retail and a key approach to capturing the Chinese consumer market.
“King Power will be prioritising digitisation as part of its future development. We look forward to improving our offering and moving forward together with brands and our distributor partners in the area of digitisation.” ✈
