Govt urged to help small tourism operators in Covid-19 fallout

[webfact]

Govt urged to help small tourism operators in Covid-19 fallout

By THE NATION

 

 

The Association of Domestic Travel (ADT) and Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA) are calling on the government to help small tourism operators who have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis.

 

Thanapol Chewarattanaporn, ADT president, said the government is being urged to provide financial support to travel agencies, as most of them are small businesses and are looking for means to make it through next year.

 

He also said that he aims to promote domestic tourism by targeting all ages and all regions.

 

Sutthipong Puenpipob, TTAA president, said he will call on the government to help operators of outbound tourism with soft loans and workers.

 

He said outbound travel agencies are having to shift to the domestic market, because they cannot take their customers overseas at this time. Hence, he said, they need to sell premium local packages.

 

He added that his association has also called on the tourism organisations of several other countries to promote Thai destinations.

 

According to data available, in the first six months of this year some 2.6 million Thais travelled out of Thailand, or 61.13 per cent fewer than the 6.79 million Thai travellers in the same period last year.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30393069

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-08-17

 

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[CelticBhoy]

Having Songkhran every month should perk business up.

There's another one due next month, isn't there?  ????

[bluesofa]

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

Govt urged to help small tourism operators

Just how small are these tourism operators?

[Airalee]

I checked with 3 different “small” tourism agencies to book an island tour here in AoNang this week.  Every place was between 100-150% more than booking online with klook.  When I asked them about the price discrepancy this was what I was told at various places.

 

”oh...these are our high season prices...let me go get different brochure”.  I walked away.

 

”if you have a problem with the tour you can contact me”.  Said another tour operator.  Again I walked away.
 

3rd place...sheepish grin.  I walked away.

 

 

[Flying Saucage]

Best way for the Thai government to help tourism operators: Just have a look to Europe how they do it, and do that here too!

[sammieuk1]

To many tanks planes and subs to buy for the impending war for any help but we can make a speech on our big ideas ???? 

[madmitch]

7 hours ago, Airalee said:

I checked with 3 different “small” tourism agencies to book an island tour here in AoNang this week.  Every place was between 100-150% more than booking online with klook.  When I asked them about the price discrepancy this was what I was told at various places.

 

”oh...these are our high season prices...let me go get different brochure”.  I walked away.

 

”if you have a problem with the tour you can contact me”.  Said another tour operator.  Again I walked away.
 

3rd place...sheepish grin.  I walked away.

 

 

UNfortunately the likes of Klook are also having a major effect on local tour agencies, who can't operate on the commission deals that a high volume provider such as Klook can offer. They have rents and licences to pay for.

[Airalee]

11 minutes ago, madmitch said:

UNfortunately the likes of Klook are also having a major effect on local tour agencies, who can't operate on the commission deals that a high volume provider such as Klook can offer. They have rents and licences to pay for.

So 150%+  markup is ok?  I think not.  
 

I also think that a 2 square meter kiosk won’t have very high rent.

 

I book my hotels online, buy my plane tickets online, shop online.  Well...now I will buy my tours online.

[madmitch]

2 minutes ago, Airalee said:

So 150%+  markup is ok?  I think not.  
 

I also think that a 2 square meter kiosk won’t have very high rent.

 

I book my hotels online, buy my plane tickets online, shop online.  Well...now I will buy my tours online.

150% is a rip-off. Totally agree. Sounds like the well-documented Thai practice of putting up the prices when business is tough.

 

But my comment was a general one. Also not all online agents are cheaper than locals; in fact many are a real rip-off.. I can't name names but there are some quite well-known ones that invariably charge more than the local agents.

 

 

 

[Airalee]

35 minutes ago, madmitch said:

150% is a rip-off. Totally agree. Sounds like the well-documented Thai practice of putting up the prices when business is tough.

 

But my comment was a general one. Also not all online agents are cheaper than locals; in fact many are a real rip-off.. I can't name names but there are some quite well-known ones that invariably charge more than the local agents.

 

 

 

But the thing is, it wasn’t a case of them raising the price when there were no tourists.  If it had been, I would have been flipping through pristine folders of newly laminated pages.  These were the “old” prices. 
 

I paid ฿920 for a Hong Island speedboat tour including lunch.  The long tail boat tour was  ฿840.  Klook is making money off these prices.  The kiosks were asking ฿2,400 for the speedboat and ฿1,600 for the long tail tours.  In one place, the tout was so clueless that when I questioned them on the ฿2,400 cost, they said...”no...฿2,700...have to pay ฿300 extra for park entry” (Thai price was ฿60)

 

So...if the boat operator makes let’s say ฿800 of the ฿920 that klook charges, that leads me to believe that the tout is making ฿1,600 (of the ฿2,400 total price).  
 

It appears that for a long time, greed reigned and now, karma has caught up with them.  I’m have no sense of schadenfreude for the situation, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for them.
 

And to show how bad tourism is right now...instead of the usual 500 people on the beach...this is what it was like this past weekend.

 

[madmitch]

2 hours ago, Airalee said:

But the thing is, it wasn’t a case of them raising the price when there were no tourists.  If it had been, I would have been flipping through pristine folders of newly laminated pages.  These were the “old” prices. 
 

I paid ฿920 for a Hong Island speedboat tour including lunch.  The long tail boat tour was  ฿840.  Klook is making money off these prices.  The kiosks were asking ฿2,400 for the speedboat and ฿1,600 for the long tail tours.  In one place, the tout was so clueless that when I questioned them on the ฿2,400 cost, they said...”no...฿2,700...have to pay ฿300 extra for park entry” (Thai price was ฿60)

 

So...if the boat operator makes let’s say ฿800 of the ฿920 that klook charges, that leads me to believe that the tout is making ฿1,600 (of the ฿2,400 total price).  
 

It appears that for a long time, greed reigned and now, karma has caught up with them.  I’m have no sense of schadenfreude for the situation, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for them.
 

And to show how bad tourism is right now...instead of the usual 500 people on the beach...this is what it was like this past weekend.

 

Thos are ridiculous prices. I did that tour for 700 baht six or seven years ago, when the national park fee was something like 20 baht paid directly to the ranger. I dont think inflation is that bad! I'd rather support local agents than Klook but they''ll simply price themselves out of the market at those rates.

[Airalee]

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

Thos are ridiculous prices. I did that tour for 700 baht six or seven years ago, when the national park fee was something like 20 baht paid directly to the ranger. I dont think inflation is that bad! I'd rather support local agents than Klook but they''ll simply price themselves out of the market at those rates.

I feel the same way as you.  I had already priced the tour on klook before engaging the local agents and would have happily paid a few hundred baht extra in order to pump extra money into the local economy.  However, at the prices they quoted me, I felt that their services (and value added) weren’t in line with the “new normal”.  They really have to get with the times and realize that they don’t have the same captive audience that they have had for the past few years.