The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is using social networking to reach tourists and is confident it will become an important marketing strategy for high end destinations like Koh Samui and Krabi. Social networking is popular with consumers and marketers, especially Facebook, Twitter and blogs, because of their low cost and high returns, the TAT said.

Social networking yielded better results than expected for the TAT's first project, “Ultimate Thailand Explorers,” with 7.89 million viewers in only eight weeks, it added. It expects up to 25 million viewers when the project ends in February.

The project garnered 356 video clips from visitors with 638,720 viewers in eight weeks, while the contest was mentioned by 576,000 articles and blogs.

There were 21,250 news clips about the project, higher than the 2,000 expected. The 25 semi-finalists are promoting their clips in their homelands to woo as many votes as possible. This also promotes the country through social networks, said Suraphon Svetasreni, the TAT deputy governor for policy and planning.

The TAT will promote Thai tourism to registered voters participating in the project, a number expected to top 10,000 worldwide. It will also conduct research in the future.

"We have set aside Bt35 million to promote Thai tourism online next year, up from Bt15 million this year," Mr. Suraphon said.

“The Ultimate Thailand Explorers” campaign was launched last month with an investment of Bt18.5 million.

The TAT invited global travelers to enter a contest by filming videos about what they would do if they won and visited Thailand and what should be done to promote Thai tourism. Five qualified couples will be awarded six-day tour packages to visit five provinces in Thailand -- Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui.

They will share their experiences by writing blogs and uploading pictures or video clips online to encourage Thai tourism. The contestants who attract the most viewers and highest number of votes will win US$15,000.