Mumbai, 03 June 2014: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has announced the names of four couples who have won its “Dream Honeyteering Contest”. Interestingly, one of the four winning couples is from India.
The contest bestows winners with a unique honeymoon trip to Thailand for seven days plus an opportunity to engage in local volunteer activities and a honeymoon photography portrait session.
The two-month online social media campaign, which ran on www.honeyteeringthailand.com from 18 March to 10 May, 2014, attracted 190 couples from all over the world. Under the “Honeyteering – We got so much love to give!” concept, participating couples shared their dream of a honeymoon plus volunteering trip in their desired destination in Thailand in a unique URL page link and encouraged their friends to vote by clicking “HEART” on the page. The four couples collected the highest number of Hearts won.
The winners are Federica Xotti and Alberto Badiluzzi from Italy, who won a Hua Hin trip; Mark Aquino and Caroline Aquino from Philippines, who won a Chiang Mai trip; Thomas Andreasen and Michelle Simonsen from Denmark, who won a Phuket trip; Milton Rebeiro and Anita Rebeiro from India, who won a Ko Samui trip.
The four winning couples will experience a unique honeyteering trip of their dreams in Thailand. The prize for each couple includes return international air tickets from their destination of origin, six nights’ accommodation at a luxury hotel in Thailand, all meals, volunteer activity of in the destination of their choice, sightseeing tours and transfers.
The choice of destinations offered for the participating couples includes Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Ko Samui. For volunteer activity, the choices are teaching English conversation in a local school, working in a local community, protecting the marine environment, or helping on a nature conservation project.
Milton and Anita Rebeiro have opted for Ko Samui, an indication of the destination’s rising popularity as a honeymoon destination among Indian couples.
Sethaphan Buddhani, director, TAT Mumbai says, “It’s encouraging to see the Indian traveller showing interest in voluntourism, which is an increasingly popular activity for tourists to Thailand from the world over. Particularly for the repeat tourist looking for a new experience in Thailand, this is an interesting option. Moreover, as the Indian market becomes increasingly well-travelled and starts to seek experiences that allow them an “insider” view, voluntourism allows them to interact with the locals and get incredible insights into Thai lifestyle.”