Thai tourism suffered dramatically in 2014 with the coup d’ etat in May of that year and continued its downward spiral throughout 2015 despite the reported numbers of arrivals, not tourists, each month by the Minister of Tourism and Sports.
See, instead of targeting its ASEAN brothers, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, under the misdirection of the Minister of Tourism and Sports, has failed mightily targeting domestic tourism at a time when local Thais are up to their eyeballs in debt and not doing much in-country Thai tourism travel.
Thai Tourism
The Discover Thainess campaign and the promotion of Happiness throughout Thailand have been complete failures as no one knows just what Thainess is and there haven’t been much happiness in the Land of Thai tourism
All throughout 2015, it was obvious that Thai Tourism was in deep trouble. Almost daily, there were fluff articles about how wonderful tourism was, how many tourists had arrived, who the 20 millionth (and so on) arrival was, and it was all just to cover up the fact that the Erawan bombing, the Koh Tao murders, additional murders and “suicides” of tourists have all but killed Thai tourism.
But, the Minister of Tourism and Sports and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have issued rose-colored glasses to all Thai Government officials and have them believing that foreign tourist arrivals have exceeded all expectations. What isn’t said is that all arrivals are not necessarily tourists. Many are simply in-transit passengers. The Thai Tourism revenue reportedly at 2.2 trillion baht is also complete fiction as the Minister of Tourism and Sports has no way to know how much any tourist spends.
You know that Thai tourism is in the shitter when the Deputy Prime Minister – the guy in charge of Finance – is running the show instead of the Minister of Tourism and Sports.
BANGKOK, 11 January 2016 (NNT) – The Deputy Prime Minister chaired the policy appointment meeting of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to help determine the country’s tourism strategy in the future.
Finance Minister to tell MOTS and TAT what to do since apparently they don’t have a clue.
The Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has presided over the TAT’s tourism policy appointment meeting along with the Minister of Tourism and Sports Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, the TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn, and private tourism agencies.
The problem is the Finance Minister is using the faulty Thai Tourism numbers from the Tourism Ministry to form his plans
The meeting is aimed at establishing an integrated working plan to promote tourism activities in Thailand, including the promotion of Thailand to be ASEAN’s center of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE), the enhancement to income distribution from tourism, increasing the country’s income from tourists, and enhancing the sufficiency in tourism.
Same old bullshit talk. Discover Thainess, Happiness, Sustainability, Hub of Delusion, Quality Tourists, blah, blah, blah
The government might also be providing a special budget for the stimulation of investment in tourism.
ff everything is so peachy-dandy in Thai Tourism, why does it need additional funds?
The TAT will be executing short-term tourism promoting projects such as the illumination of attractions along Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, the enhancement to tourism products and services value, the amendment to the Hotel Act, the organization of contests, and the enhancement to online tourism services by developing the accommodation and services booking website.
WOW! Lights on the River. That should attract more bugs than tourists. And, what is “enhancement to tourism products and services value”. I was taught one cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Oh, goody! More contests. Brings over 1 tourist winner. Dumb idea. And, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will set up its own booking website. How fucking stupid is this. No one will use it since TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Agoda.com and others are already established.
Thai Tourism will continue to falter and we will be reminded daily of how great things are in the Land of Delusion.
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