By now, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will be a couple of weeks into its reality show style competition to raise awareness of Thailand as a tourist destination.

They are seeking five couples who will then travel around five destinations, Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui all expenses paid, one couple to each of them. As they go they have to record their experiences on blogs and social networking sites. Viewers with access to the internet will then vote for which couple they consider the winner. That winner will get $US10,000 and a holiday to, where else, Thailand. Applicants can come from anywhere in the world and those lucky five couples will be flown to Thailand free of charge.

This idea follows on the increasingly creative ideas that tourist authorities worldwide are using to make us aware of their destinations. Who can forget the job offer from Queensland Tourism in Australia to live on an island off the Great Barrier reef for 6 months and write about what they see.

This is also another case where traditional advertising methods such as TV advertising or hosting journalists to write about the place are replaced by getting online activity. Is it because the sort of people who would visit Thailand tends to be internet users? Maybe, but that’s not really the aim. The aim is to hook us as we would be hooked to a TV soap and watch for those 5 days when these couples wil be reporting on their visits.