The Thai government launched the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) project more than a decade ago in 2001. Its main areas are community-level self-reliance, creating employment and supporting additional income opportunities by making products and services, helping to keep and encourage local knowledge, enhancing the tourism industry, and strengthening more sustainable rural development for a better quality of life throughout the country. The products are divided into 6 categories which are Food, Beverage, Textile and Garments, Household and Decorations, Handicrafts and Souvenirs and Herbal products.
However, there were problems with product quality, marketing skills, basic business skills, management, tax planning, accounting, and so on. Local OTOP entrepreneurs normally have less capital investment. Some have tried to get a loan from banks but most are not qualified. Then, they go for a personal loan with high interest rates at 2-3% per month. Sometimes, those local products were rejected because of late delivery, missing specifications, and even damage, which resulted in less profit most of the time.
In 2016, OTOP was significantly promoted under the Prime minister’s policy through CDD and Thai Airways International. The government gave the advice to select products and allowed the International Airline to bring OTOP products to their business and services. The OTOP Prestige project was hosted by CDD to help OTOP entrepreneurs. The government budget was to develop the packaging design. The stakeholders such as Thai Airways, Airport Authority of Thailand, Thailand Post Office, and the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Interior, etc. were signed to collaborate and share the support cost for OTOP inflight products. Now, those products have been certified as the official OTOP brand. The first OTOP Prestige onboard magazine was finally launched in April 2016. Thai, English, and Chinese languages were used in the magazine. The in-flight videos were prepared to show the local culture product process and heritage. During and after OTOP products were shown in the magazine, both domestic and international customers could make an order from the website at a compatible price. Since August 2016, inflight OTOP products were sold at 14.5 million baht or 0.5 million USD. With the onboard magazine, OTOP entrepreneurs can sell from in-flight via www, at the airport stores, fair/exhibition booths, OTOP shops in each of the two national gas stations in their area, or at their own local stores. The sales volume increased about 3 times from the past. This showed that flight customers are interested in OTOP products.
For instance, the first theme was set as “Thai Heritage” to introduce the value of Thai OTOP, which sold about 10,300 products onboard and 3,000 products online per month. The second introduced “Modern Thai Life Style” to illustrate the applicable idea using OTOP products today, selling around 11,000 products onboard and 3,100 products online per month. The third magazine was “Summer” to promote OTOP products as well as the Songkran festival event that helped sell 3,000 products onboard and 1,600 online. The fourth showed how to use OTOP products as “Home Life Style” using the home decoration theme. Interestingly, after the OTOP inflight project have been commenced, inbound tourists were found to be mostly interested in Thai heritage, Thai herbs, Thai symbols, and Thai food. For instance, bracelets and spa products are the most popular, creating a large sales volume. Chinese and Korean customers bought the most onboard products. On the other hand, fresh tropical food and fruit are the other tourist perspectives. With the unique taste, those tourists expect to enjoy their trip eating and drinking in Thailand that is considered to offer economically cheaper travel costs than many other Asian countries.
