Hotel chief slams Hua Hin Recharge - urges province to open to domestic rather than foreign tourists

[webfact]

Picture: 77kaoded

 

The Thai government's Phase 2 reopening plans under the Hua Hin Recharge scheme has been slammed by several in the tourism industry.

 

Wasan Kittikul of the Western Thai Hoteliers' Association who has responsibility for the area said he appreciated the concept.

 

But he said that expecting foreigners to arrive in droves on October 1st and spend 1.2 billion baht was completely unrealistic. 

 

He suggested that the plan should focus on domestic tourism first and also open up the whole of Prachuap Khiri Khan rather than just Hua Hin.

 

Picture: 77kaoded

 

Agreeing with that assessment was Udomsuk Nimsiang who runs Kanta Resort and used to be the head of the area's tourism business association. 

 

He pointed out that Hua Hin was not an island like Phuket and that the province of Prachuap Khiri Khan had much to offer in terms of all kinds of different places and tourism, reported 77kaoded. 

 

He wanted to see not just some hotels under the SHA scheme benefit but smaller businesses too.

 

ASEAN NOW notes that there has been widespread criticism that the Phuket Sandbox has only benefited some large hotels and businesses and that the money from what tourists there have been has not filtered down to smaller enterprises. 

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2021-09-08

 

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[JoePai]

At last someone who thinks and is sensible with what he says

[finnsk]

Many forreigners have appartments/houses in Hua hin. They are waiting to come back to LOS.

 

I know they will not support the hotels, but they will use a lot of money at small shops, street kitchens etc.

 

Let vaccinated and Covid free people come back without stupid qurantine rules etc. they are are ready to go here for the winther, they can support a lot of unemployed thai people.

[Hayduke]

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

But he said that expecting foreigners to arrive in droves on October 1st and spend 1.2 billion baht was completely unrealistic. 

 

Where has he been all this time? Government tourism numbers are.....always....completely unrealistic.

 

 

[spidermike007]

Kudos to Wasan for telling it like it is. Hua Hin is NOT an international destination. It is a nice town. But, not someplace people would come for a primary stay. And there is no way to do any sort of contained program in a city like that.

 

As usual, the authorities are living on Mars, are being silly and impractical, and are showing their level of desperation, now that Cha Cha, Phiphat, and Anutin have sabotaged the tourism industry, to the point where it will likely never return to anything approaching what it was before. 

[Will B Good]

From "Hua Hin Recharge" to "Hua Hin Discharge" in a matter of hours.

[MrJ2U]

I agree!

 

Problem you need to be vaccinated and its difficult to get up in Issan.

 

Not talking about Chinese vaccines.  

 

I'm getting Pfeizer this weekend but my wife will have to wait until Moderna arrives in October.

 

Like many Thais, she doesn't want Sinovac or Sinopharm.

 

What's a holiday without going out for a nice dinner.

If vaccine's are mandatory you need to vaccinate married couples.

 

I don't want to dine alone.

 

 

[samtam]

I'm not sure how one defines "opened up". As far as I know, Hua Hin is open to domestic visitors already. Two friends went at the weekend, and stayed in an hotel. AFAIK they have only had one jab.

[ezzra]

3 points, with domestic tourism they will not be able to quot those telephone number figures of how many billions spent by the locals, the other point being that the locals don't bring foreign currency in and lastly, you can't over charge the locals as they do to the foreigners and i know what i'm talking about...

[ukrules]

They're too busy trying to keep COVID out when the reality is that it's already here and it's everywhere.

 

They should just open the airport again and be done with it.

 

Having said that, hardly anyone would come which is I suspect the real reason why they don't open up and strict entry controls are in place.

 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

But he said that expecting foreigners to arrive in droves on October 1st and spend 1.2 billion baht was completely unrealistic

But it's Phipats dream... at least someone in the industry knows what is really needed.

Domestic tourism with vaccinated customers...

Not pie in the sky international prisoners.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

ASEAN NOW notes that there has been widespread criticism that the Phuket Sandbox has only benefited some large hotels and businesses and that the money from what tourists there have been has not filtered down to smaller enterprises.

Yep got that right.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, Will B Good said:

From "Hua Hin Recharge" to "Hua Hin Discharge" in a matter of hours.

I believe you can get medication for that too.

[Will B Good]

Just now, hotchilli said:

I believe you can get medication for that too.

Still on it.

[khunjeff]

4 hours ago, samtam said:

I'm not sure how one defines "opened up". As far as I know, Hua Hin is open to domestic visitors already. Two friends went at the weekend, and stayed in an hotel. AFAIK they have only had one jab.

Quite so. I spent last weekend at a large hotel there - having driven down from Bangkok - and no one ever asked about my single AZ shot or indicated that it was an issue. I'm not sure how much more "open" to domestic visitors it could be.

 

[IamNoone88]

Khun Wasan Kittikul - RESPECT. Yes, lets get the domestic economy going for every-one. Please come and take over the Phuket Hotel Association as well and finally we will see some sense. Well done.