A Destination Promotion - with a Delightful Difference

eTN

It's normally about National Tourist Office budgets and big bucks. Not at all what you would associate with donating US$20,000 to help poor kids.

That's the beauty of some innovative promotional material made in Thailand, thousands of which are now sitting in homes and offices all over the world. Perhaps even on your desk? The great thing is that people pick it up to look at it, ask where you got it from - and so the promotional value increases.

The other nice thing is that it lasts a whole year - and even then, many folks will keep it as a collector's item.

So what is it?

It's a non-profit, non-commercial desk calendar, with a delightful difference. Not one created by a fancy media agency, but by two foreign residents of Chiang Mai: retired British-born hotelier Basil McCall, and Ramlah M. Jafri, an ordinary mum from Malaysia. Two people with a vision of "Children helping Children".

They got students from Prem Tinsulanonda International School to paint pictures reflecting why "Chiang Mai is a Wonderful Place to Live" selected the best ones, and placed then into a calendar with 5 pages of informative text about this ancient city - one which gets too little tourism promotion.

With neither sponsors nor advertising, they boldly paid for the production themselves, and took delivery of the 2.52 metric tons of calendars at home, from where they also did all the sales and marketing; packaging and despatch. City Life Magazine kindly provided artworks and layouts for free, and Chotana, a local Chiang Mai printer, obliged at cost price.

They hired no staff, took no income, and sold over 9,000 copies to hotels, travel agents and tourists. Not surprisingly, they received accolades from the Tourism Authority of Thailand Regional Director Mr. Junnapong Saranak, and from the Thai Minister of Tourism at that time, Dr. Suvit Yodmani, who made a special from Bangkok to be with them at their presentation to travel industry executives last October.

They donated the proceeds of Baht 604,000 to the Dream Weaving for Peace Foundation at a meaningful ceremony earlier this month. Says Ms. Jafri: "It was exhausting, but very rewarding, and we are so glad it succeeded" Ex-Amari hotelier Basil McCall adds: "Many sleepless nights, worrying whether we could even cover the costs. We are so grateful to the hotels and travel agents who supported this project"

Exhausting and worrying maybe, but encouraging for sure. The two volunteers have already got the 2009 "Chiang Mai Charity Calendar" on the drawing boards. The full story and contact details are on their home-made web site: http://chiangmaicalendar.googlepages.com

Printable Version | published Apr 22, 2008

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