Government Is Promoting Domestic Tourism

[snoop1130]

Government Is Promoting Domestic Tourism

 

 

BANGKOK, Sept 14 (TNA) — The government is stimulating domestic tourism and considering how to welcome foreign tourists to Thailand while the country is implementing serious measures to control the coronavirus disease 2019.

 

Deputy government spokesperson Traisulee Traisaranakul said that pending permission for the arrivals of foreign travellers, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Tourism Authority of Thailand launched campaigns to encourage Thai people and expatriates to go on vacation to support the COVID-affected economy.

 

The government asked people to have vacation while urging operators to strictly implement disease control measures for public confidence.

 

Full Story: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-537591

 

-- © Copyright TNA 2020-09-14

 

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[RotBenz8888]

"The Ministry of Tourism and Sports hoped that when the local COVID-19 situation improves, tourism can solve Thai economic problems by generating national income and creating jobs for people, Ms Traisulee said. (TNA)" 

 

If that's their plan to save the economy, prepare for disaster. 

 

[mark131v]

11 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Government Is Promoting Domestic Tourism

More accurate to say the government is flapping around and grasping at straws

[YetAnother]

17 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

launched campaigns to encourage Thai people and expatriates to go on vacation to support

expatriates ? by reducing the double pricing in national parks to locals' rates ?! most of us wrote off visiting that stuff long ago when we figured out what the thais were doing; 

and when we did, it was Permanent

[johng]

Domestic tourism is just spreading the money already in the economy out to more poeple so yes it can be helpful to tourist dependent business..but there are limits as to how many holidays anyone can afford to take..aleady the government incentive to stimulate domestic tourism has been a bit of a flop.

Edited September 14, 2020 by johng

[mark131v]

2 minutes ago, johng said:

Domestic tourism is just spreading the money already in the economy out to more poeple so yes it can be helpful to tourist dependent business..but there are limits as to how many holidays anyone can afford to take..aleady the government incentive to stimulate domestic tourism eas a bit of a flop.

Give them a week and they will announce more holidays for the civil service, bingo economy sorted Thai style!!

[alianware]

Does it mean that gathering for local people is more important for the economy than their health ? People try to avoid much vacation but they are contrarily motivated to do holiday. ????

[greeneking]

1 hour ago, mark131v said:

More accurate to say the government is flapping around and grasping at straws

Why is this even news?

And what is ' control the coronavirus disease 2019.'

[ThailandRyan]

Thailand Domestic Tourism Rehash 2.0

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, YetAnother said:

expatriates ? by reducing the double pricing in national parks to locals' rates ?! most of us wrote off visiting that stuff long ago when we figured out what the thais were doing; 

and when we did, it was Permanent

Exactly and most of the Thai attractions are very bad anyway. Easier to sit at the condo and have a beer. 

[DrTuner]

The expression on her face says it all .. 'we're <deleted>'.

[Kerryd]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

to encourage Thai people and expatriates to go on vacation to support the COVID-affected economy.

Been doing a little "domestic tourism" for years now. Severely tempted to stop, especially when I go somewhere and am expected to pay 10x the amount my friends are charged, because of my skin colour (try doing that in a Western country and see how quickly the outrage grows and the people demand such practises be revoked).

Economic status has F.A. to do with it. It's nothing but an underhanded cash grab, knowing that by the time a foreigner (expat or tourist) gets to the place and finds out he/she is being ripped off, they'll pay rather than leave and go somewhere else. (And you can bet that pretty much all of those people who claim they refused to pay and went somewhere else are full of B.S. Most of them probably did pay and then ranted about it afterwards to make themselves feel better.)

Take Khao Yai National Park for example. You drive 200+ kms (from Pattaya) to spend the night camping with friends. You get to the park entrance and your friends (all Thais) are charged 40 baht to enter, but you have to pay 400. Because you are white (and therefore obviously a foreigner).

What are you going to do ? Turn around and go home alone ? Expect all 8 of your friends to turn around and go home as well in a show of support ? Or pay the rip off fee and tell yourself you'll never go there again ?

They don't care if you ever come back. They've got your money (and a giggle). They couldn't care less if you did turn around and go home. Fewer people entering means less work for the staff. 

And if you actually looked at the numbers, you'd see that "tourism" accounts for roughly 16% of the total GDP, and that includes domestic tourism as well as international. One report noted that domestic tourism represented something like 6% of that number.

(I think they meant that domestic tourism account for 6% of the 16%, not 6% of the total GDP. So, if my math is right, Domestic tourism should account for roughly 2.66% of the total GDP and International Tourism would account for the remaining 13.34%.)

However, accounting for Domestic Tourism is difficult. For example, a group of us went to Wang Nam Kiao for an over-nighter. The money we spent on gas, food and at the campsite won't appear in any tourism numbers.
Last December, an even larger group of us went on a trip to the North-West. Again, most of the money we spent wouldn't show up in any tourism stats, except for a couple hotels we stayed at on the way. There's no way for them to tell that the gas we bought or the food we ate along the way was "tourism related", even though that probably accounted for most of our expenditures on the trip.

Not to mention that many hotels, "resorts" and campgrounds probably don't report anywhere near what they've actually accommodated. 

So Domestic tourism probably, in reality, contributes a lot more to the GDP than appears in the official numbers. 

And there is a lot of Domestic tourism. The campgrounds in Khao Yai park were full on Saturday despite the rainy weather. The parking areas were full of cars, trucks, motorcycles and camper vans and tents of all shapes and sizes crowded the open areas. 
Last week at Wang Nam Kiao it was crowded as well. We were lucky to find a spot to pitch our tents and other than me, everyone else was Thai. 
And that's during the rainy season and covid crisis. 

A lot of people have this misconception that because there's virtually no international tourism, that means the whole country is broke and barely surviving. They can't seem to comprehend that all the people that account for the 84% of the GDP that isn't "tourism" related are mostly still working, making money and going on holidays. 

There are plenty of people in the country who can travel, and do. Frik, everywhere I go there are hordes of people. I've done 3 weekend trips and a couple of day trips to different places just in the last couple of months and everywhere I've gone there are scores of Thais doing the same thing. 

A couple weeks from now we have another extended trip in the works, to the North-East part of the country this time. 12 or so people signed up so far, 11 of them Thais. 
When the "rainy" season ends we'll probably do some more (though it won't be as much fun if we don't end up riding through at least one monsoon downpour every trip) !

And I expect, rain or not, that everywhere we go we'll see hordes of Thais doing the same thing.

Domestic tourism in Thailand is alive and well despite the conditions. Encouraging it a bit more won't hurt and may get more people to go somewhere or do something that they wouldn't have otherwise.

And it also has the benefit of making it look like the gov't cares and is trying to do something. Which is something I think the current administration is in sore need of (the appearance of caring and doing something to make life better for the people).

[Thomas J]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Government Is Promoting Domestic Tourism

They kill the tourism industry destroy jobs and then anticipate that whats left can somehow still have enough money to make a meaningful impact on tourism.

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Thomas J

[klauskunkel]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Government Is Promoting Domestic Tourism

Again? Didn't you do that last week?

[bronzedude]

I'd like to take a few domestic 3 or 4 day golf holidays, but I haven't seen that many good bargains. I just returned from Khao Yai and the best deal was the free weekday green fee at Bonanza GC. Cart 600 baht, Caddy 400 baht--although caddy was not mandatory. Most other reasonably priced courses were 500-600 green fee, Cart 600-750, Caddy 350-400. I live in Jomtien and Emerald weekday is 1050 GF,Cart,Caddy, but most days it's cart path only--for the older expats that's a heart attack waiting to happen. Eastern Star, Pattaya, Pattavia, Greenwood, Khao Kheow are all 1350 all in. Amazingly Pleasant Valley and Pattaya Country club are priced higher. Bangpra is 1600 all in. I checked on Soi Dao and Kabinburi and they have specials that aren't all that special. Most specials are aimed at 2 golfers sharing the same room. For some of us that like to go on these holidays with our wives and girlfriends, have to pay essentially the double the price for the room to bring them along. These destination golf courses need to realize that we expats will contribute extra to local economies with dinners out, wives spending (ouch) and miscellaneous other things. I estimate that accomodation and golf expense is only half of what I spend on these junkets--and that's driving my own car as transportation. Spoke to a lady at Soi Dao GC the other day and found out that starting in October, their golf special now has the cart and caddy as extra cost when before they were included in the price. I nix the thought of going there. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by bronzedude
spelling

[garzhe]

18 hours ago, YetAnother said:

expatriates ? by reducing the double pricing in national parks to locals' rates ?! most of us wrote off visiting that stuff long ago when we figured out what the thais were doing; 

and when we did, it was Permanent

Double pricing ? Lucky if you can find any park only doubles. Most 400 - 500% more for farangs

[tonray]

19 hours ago, YetAnother said:

expatriates ? by reducing the double pricing in national parks to locals' rates ?! most of us wrote off visiting that stuff long ago when we figured out what the thais were doing; 

and when we did, it was Permanent

I would travel more...but Immigration states that I can't spend my 800K and in addition need to buy worthless insurance.....

[jonclark]

 

Looks like someone took the jam out of her donut - cheer up love it may never happen

[mark131v]

20 hours ago, mark131v said:

Give them a week and they will announce more holidays for the civil service, bingo economy sorted Thai style!!

Damn I am good!!

 

 

[Redline]

This is just getting sad now

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

19 hours ago, Kerryd said:

most of the money we spent wouldn't show up in any tourism stats

We all know what other money never shows up in the stats. I just paid the electric bill for an extended family member upcountry, which had normally been paid for by a granddaughter, who was a bargirl. She's since returned upcountry to sell food by the road, which isn't nearly enough.

 

In the official stats, her meager salary was perhaps included. Perhaps not the tips and barfines. And certainly not what happens after, the largesse.

 

I could write pages about that situation, but I'm getting ready for work. I'll just say, what else is there for her to do? When the basic education is basically babysitting, higher ed is just paying for a piece of paper, which is denied to the majority of Thais, as are the job opportunities which are kept to a minimum by powerful families, their monopolies, and obscene wealth.

[Fex Bluse]

With tourism being 30% or more of the Thai GDP, it's no wonder they are begging now. Many of us longtimers know how much it must hurt certain arrogant, parasitic and xenophobic government officials to even acknowledge that foreigners, and especially 'Farangs', are important to help the economy. 

 

Having to admit and be nice to Farang is a Thai xenophobe's worst nightmare. No wonder she is frowning.