Interview with Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Yuthasak Supasorn

[webfact]

Balancing tourism is a work in progress

By TTR WEEKLY

 

  

BANGKOK, 27 November 2019: Tourism Authority of Thailand governor, Yuthasak Supasorn, has led the marketing agency since September 2015. At the end of September 2019, he renewed his contract for another four years; his second term in office.

 

As TAT prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2020, TTR Weekly posted questions to the governor on the milestones of his first term and the journey ahead that will reshape the Thai tourism experience.

 

PAST SUCCESS

 

Q: In October, you renewed your four-year contract to head TAT. Looking back could you identify specific accomplishments during your first term that achieved a change of direction for the TAT’?

 

A: I CONSIDER MYSELF VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE ASSUMED THE REINS OF TAT AT A TIME WHEN THERE WAS TOTAL STABILITY WITHIN THE COUNTRY, THE ASEAN REGION AND GLOBALLY.

 

This made my job much easier, as it freed me up to focus on my core responsibilities; to market and promote the destination and, to the best possible extent, manage the numbers.

 

Since I took over, visitor arrivals increased from 24.8 million in 2014 to 38.1 million in 2018. This has been possible because of the hard work of all the TAT staff and the full support and partnership of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, all the many government agencies, the airports, airlines and the private sector. It’s been a collective effort.

 

Today, we can all be proud of the fact that tourism accounts for 17.7% or over THB3 trillion of the local GDP. In 2018, the sector employed an estimated 4.26 million people in both direct and indirect jobs.

 

As a country, we are also very fortunate to be blessed with a very good geographical location. We now get 75% of our visitor arrivals from short- and medium-haul countries; such as China, India, Russia and Japan, and the ASEAN countries; such as Lao PDR and Malaysia. So, once you have the airline connections and visa-free facilities, plus good infrastructure, it makes our marketing job easier.

 

As there is plenty of seating capacity going into our main gateway airports in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai as well as other regional airports; such as Samui and Hat Yai, it enables us to proceed with our signature campaign to promote 55 emerging provincial destinations. This is in line with the objectives of the 12th National Economic and Social Development Plan, the government’s policy on economic development direction, the 2nd National Tourism Development Plan (2017 – 2021), Thai Tourism Strategy 2018 – 2020, as well as the TAT Enterprise Plan 2017 to 2022.

 

One other project I am very proud of is the Michelin guidebook entry. We signed up with the Michelin in 2017, and the brand-name guidebook for global culinary connoisseurs has steadily added more and more restaurants over the years. Thailand now has 282 restaurants and food stalls listed in this world-famous guidebook. It has generated enormous positive publicity and generated strong inter-sectoral linkages with our bedrock economic force, agriculture.

 

We also launched other great campaigns to boost high-spending, long-staying visitors; such as Health and Wellness, Weddings and Honeymoons, Ecotourism and Adventure, and Sports Tourism. All of these have created positive results.

 

The only major crisis I have had to deal with was the Phuket boat accident in 2018. It was natural for the Chinese market to drop after that due to safety concerns. But we were able to move quickly to regain confidence and to do aggressive in-market activities. It took a few months before Chinese visitors began to recover, and they are still generating more than 10 million arrivals.

 

GOING FORWARD

 

Q: What factors encouraged you to sign for a second four-year term, and what are the strategic objectives that you intend to achieve during your second term?

 

A: I would like to thank all our TAT Board Members for their continued confidence in me. Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of TAT’s founding, and we will need to make many adjustments to strengthen our ability to deal with intensive change and intensive competition. That is now work in progress, and I hope to complete it over the next four years.

 

 

Our over-arching objective now is to balance marketing and management and put an equivalent focus on responsible and sustainable tourism. The 2020 Promotion of Tourism Promotion Action Plan covers six dimensions:

 

1. Develop community tourism forms and tourism products that have good potential to accommodate the right target markets.

 

2. Promote quality tourists along with attracting first-time visitors from new source markets and encourage Thai tourists to travel domestically.

 

3. Encourage the creation of tourism standards in order to build trust and safety for tourists and tourism operators.

 

4. Create a network of effective value chain tourism partners for sustainable tourism development.

 

5. Encourage tourism business operators to apply technology and innovation to enhance tourism competitiveness.

 

6. Develop TAT internal processes and personnel to create a Culture of Excellence and enhance their ability to cope with the changes.

 

I have also created the acronym “NExT MOVE” for formulating strategies and action plans in 2020.

 

Full story: https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2019/11/balancing-tourism-is-a-work-in-progress/

 

-- © Copyright TTR Weekly 2019-11-27

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[colinneil]

So Yuthasak renewed his contract for another 4 years..... Bet that put a serious dent in his bank ACCOUNTS.

[kingofthemountain]

18 minutes ago, webfact said:

17 minutes ago, colinneil said:

So Yuthasak renewed his contract for another 4 years..... Bet that put a serious dent in his bank ACCOUNTS.

 

He has answered himself in his first sentence

''I CONSIDER MYSELF VERY FORTUNATE...''

 

Fortune = Synonymes:wealthrichessubstancepropertyassetsresourcesmeanspossessionstreasureestate

[Misterwhisper]

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

I have also created the acronym “NExT MOVE” for formulating strategies and action plans in 2020.

Wow!!! The man's really worth his money! He was capable of conjuring two English words made up of capital letters and - behold the unbridled creativity! - replace one of these letters with a lower case one.

 

By the way, what does that acronym actually stand for? Every acronym must stand for something, i.e. it is a short form of a longer string of words; for example: CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) or UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

 

Never thought about that, buster, did you? 

[Fex Bluse]

Wow! 

 

So many big words. 

 

I'm a beleiver now. 

[bluesofa]

30 minutes ago, webfact said:

As there is plenty of seating capacity going into our main gateway airports in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai as well as other regional airports;

Surely it's another way of saying they haven't got enough bookings.

[Destiny1990]

Its  Confusing one is very positive and upbeat about tourism achievements while others clinging on the Indians as being the last chance?

[davehowden]

You would have even more visitors spending their money here if you could get Immigration to see the "Big Picture" and stop f.rting about arresting 5 day over-stayers .........

[PatOngo]

38 minutes ago, webfact said:

3. Encourage the creation of tourism standards in order to build trust and safety for tourists and tourism operators.

That one needs a bit of tweaking, young man!

[torturedsole]

39 minutes ago, webfact said:

The only major crisis I have had to deal with was the Phuket boat accident in 2018. It was natural for the Chinese market to drop after that due to safety concerns. But we were able to move quickly to regain confidence and to do aggressive in-market activities. It took a few months before Chinese visitors began to recover, and they are still generating more than 10 million arrivals.

He sounds so sincere.  Not.  

[YetAnother]

56 minutes ago, webfact said:

Balancing tourism is a work in progress

Why not just Wei to the public idol of (pretended) greater good? 

[mok199]

I can speak only for Pattaya...we never had a great beach , but now( since the 600million sandbag rejuvenation) the beach is nothing more than a dangerously hot, baron, dusty ,dirty boat launch with a few sectioned off swim areas.....Citys are plentiful ,but citys with ocean beaches are not...Pattaya was once unique , and had a chance to continue...but greed , corruption and Thai defiance ended that..now its just a 6 dressed up as a 9....

[GeorgeCross]

interesting, in all those lofty goals, he didn't mention returning tourists once.. hmmmm

[30la]

Congratulations on your first four years of service, even if it seems like they haven't been successful!
We hope the next four are better!

[Hayduke]

15 hours ago, webfact said:

I CONSIDER MYSELF VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE ASSUMED THE REINS OF TAT AT A TIME WHEN THERE WAS TOTAL STABILITY WITHIN THE COUNTRY

 

Good boy!...that should earn the little fellow a pat on the head from Uncle Number One.

 

 

[Classic Ray]

“Interview” implies the asking of tough questions, not just giving him an opportunity to tell everyone how great he is and how tourism is in a wonderful state.

 

Questions like “What measures have you asked for to weaken the baht and make tourism more affordable?”

 

”What changes have you implemented to increase tourist safety and improve the tourist experience?”

 

”What action have you taken to eliminate the tourism scams like jet skis, taxis not using meters and tuk tuk drivers cheating passengers?”

 

What steps have you taken to encourage high spending Western tourists instead of zero dollar Chinese and Indian groups?”

 

I could go on, but we all know it’s just puffery on his part, enabled by the usual toothless journalism here.

[Emdog]

Little translation problem when he is quoted saying "manage numbers". I think he meant "massage numbers".

I was hoping for a good laugh this morning, but sometimes you just run out of that defense.

"NEXT MOVE" acronym... hmmm help me with this one:

Not Every Xenophobe Takes Money Over... Values? Veracity? Viable?.... Excuses? Exigency? Expats?

[mikebell]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

What factors encouraged you to sign for a second four-year term,

'Well the money, of course, it beats working for a living, but primarily I enjoy telling tall stories.'

[soalbundy]

I thought that his nose would be longer, much much longer.

[RichardColeman]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

A: I CONSIDER MYSELF VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE ASSUMED THE REINS OF TAT AT A TIME WHEN THERE WAS TOTAL STABILITY WITHIN THE COUNTRY

Nearly spilt my tea 

[Stargeezr]

Wow an interview with the TAT, or as I call the department as Totally always tell a lie..

When this bunch actually writes accurate tourist numbers, then I may believe a few things they say.

Geezer

[sammieuk1]

Part of the 38m must have been having a lie in CM yesterday????

[hotchilli]

1 hour ago, 30la said:

Congratulations on your first four years of service, even if it seems like they haven't been successful!
We hope the next four are better!

Very doubtful.

[lamyai3]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

I have also created the acronym “NExT MOVE” for formulating strategies and action plans in 2020.

Wasn't an eight letter acronym one of the last things we heard from Kobkarn two years ago? I'm sure many people fondly remember the catchy 2017 slogan "Thai Sustainable Tourism in Thai Way of Life" (TSTITWOL)... 

[Isaan sailor]

A record he can be proud of:  big money tourists out. Small money tourists in.  And poor people outnumber rich by a wide margin worldwide.

[keysersoze276]

On 11/27/2019 at 4:02 PM, webfact said:

This made my job much easier, as it freed me up to focus on my core responsibilities; to market and promote the destination and, to the best possible extent, manage the numbers.

Lmao.  I stopped reading at this point because I spat out my drink on my keyboard.  How about, "We have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that all tourists arrived to the Kingdom alive and safe..."

[metisdead]

An off topic post and a reply has been removed. 

[sunnyboy2018]

Delusional, self serving nonsense.

[lamyai3]

23 hours ago, Hayduke said:

On 11/27/2019 at 4:02 PM, webfact said:

I CONSIDER MYSELF VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE ASSUMED THE REINS OF TAT AT A TIME WHEN THERE WAS TOTAL STABILITY WITHIN THE COUNTRY

Good boy!...that should earn the little fellow a pat on the head from Uncle Number One.

And a cowpat on the head from everyone else.