Thailand to target India/Russia in the absence of Chinese tourists

[webfact]

Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. File photo: Than Setthakit
 

The two biggest players in the immediate and perhaps long term future of Thai tourism have been speaking again to the Thai business media outlining their respective visions. 

 

They are Pipat Ratchakitprakan - the minister for tourism and sports - and Yutthasak Suphasorn, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand or TAT. 

 

Their latest pronouncements contain little new except some promising sound bites, notes ASEAN NOW.

 

Yutthasak Suphasorn. File photo: Tourism Authority of Thailand

 

The main thrust of both of these key players is to seek new markets to replace Chinese tourists especially if their absence proves longer than anticipated.

 

They have also made their latest predictions. Yes, it's many millions of tourists spending over a trillion baht next year.

 

Pipat was up first claiming that over the last six weeks or so since the November 1st reopening of Thailand 500,000 bookings had been made by foreign tourists. 

 

200,000 of these would be coming this month then 300,000 in January with the number increasing incrementally.

 

He called January 3rd onward "Phase 3" of the reopening plan.

 

In this phase he hoped that representations made by his ministry and subsequently by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would see the land borders opened with Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia. 

 

This would add to the tourist numbers, he said.

 

His prediction for 2022 was 8 - 15 million foreign tourists. 

 

Eight million if the land borders opened but only 6-7 million if they didn't.

 

The larger figure was dependent on the Chinese being allowed to travel.

 

Whatever, his income predition was 1.3 to 1.8 TRILLION baht for next year, a figure added to by the anticipated 160 million trips made by Thai domestic tourists.

 

He stressed that in the absence of Chinese tourists he was concentrating on attracting Indians and Russians in particular, two emerging markets pre-pandemic.

 

On the subject of the pandemic and Omicron, he was leaving that in the capable hands of the Ministry of Public Health but observed that much of the tourism recovery was dependent on lockdowns and measures in source countries in Europe and the US.

 

Over to Yutthasak. He was more keen to stress his new pets - VoV tourists.

 

The VoV's are value over volume people - that is to say well-heeled tourists rather than cheepskates. 

 

This was couched in the latest language as "High Value and Sustainable Tourism" - he used English for this strategy.

 

He then expanded on this with his "Three R's"

 

1. Reopen - That's already been done in Quarter 3.

 

2. Recover - we're in that now in Q4 and into next year.

 

3. Resilient - that's the longer term plan for 2023 thru to 2027.

 

He was bullish about all three R's asserting that his plans would come to fruition with the help of IT strategies and those quality tourist targets.

 

He mentioned something called BCG - The Thai media let that slip by without finding out what he meant. ASEAN NOW thinks that may be "Business Transformation Consultancy". 

 

He then spoke of the Local Economy Development Model.

 

Finally came those predictions much enjoyed by netizens following the latest pronouncements with bated breath.

 

1.12 trillion baht would be spent next year by 10 million foreigners spending 630 billion and 490 billion by Thais making 120 million domestic trips.  

 

Health insurance plans that meet the long stay visa requirements

 

 

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[Bluespunk]

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

Whatever, his income predition was 1.3 to 1.8 TRILLION baht for next year, a figure added to by the anticipated 160 million trips made by Thai domestic tourists.

 

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

1.12 trillion baht would be spent next year by 10 million foreigners spending 630 billion and 490 billion by Thais making 120 million domestic trips.  

Wow, in the course of one article domestic tourism dropped 25%…these two should have coordinated their fantasy predictions beforehand. 

[meechai]

35 minutes ago, webfact said:

Over to Yutthasak. He was more keen to stress his new pets - VoV tourists.

 

The VoV's are value over volume people - that is to say well-heeled tourists rather than cheepskates. 

???? These guys...at some point someone has to explain to them how low class it is to say such things out loud.

 

It is fine at a board meeting to say we want these types & then of course figure out how they will attract them & why they would choose such a place as Thailand these days over all the truly open 

(no apps, no pcr on arrival, no quarantine etc)  free countries in the world.

 

Believe it or not Thailand no longer represents value in any real way to rich or poor tourists.(aka: cheapskates in TAT )

[Robin]

Indians and Russians?  Well known Quality Tourists.

Do they really expect anyone to believe their predictions?

 

If they told us what they re smoking or taking, there would be a great market for that

Perhaps it hold be made available free to all Thais.  "Returning happiness to the People"

[steven100]

this tune is getting so boring  ..... 

[Cake Monster]

These two Goons have to be the most dangerous people in Thailand.

Making such wild, and unsupported claims on numbers of Tourists that will visit the Kingdom soon.

All they do is to make Tourist Operators mad as hell now, whereas before the BS worked, and many reopened to the expectation of Tourist feet inside their Business, and spending huge wads of cash, the reality is starting to shine through, and the Tourist Operators are far from happy

Cry Wolf is not working any more.

 

[steevjee]

If they want any farang tourists at all then the best thing would be to gag or sack Anutin, his recent comment about smelly, dirty farang is just solid proof that his Chinese blood only runs thick for his Chinese connections. IMO that bloke has a lot to do with the government making it increasingly hard for expats.

[trainman34014]

14 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

These two Goons have to be the most dangerous people in Thailand.

Making such wild, and unsupported claims on numbers of Tourists that will visit the Kingdom soon.

All they do is to make Tourist Operators mad as hell now, whereas before the BS worked, and many reopened to the expectation of Tourist feet inside their Business, and spending huge wads of cash, the reality is starting to shine through, and the Tourist Operators are far from happy

Cry Wolf is not working any more.

 

They are just Mouthpieces for a Junta Government who 'orders' them to make up any numbers that make said Junta look like clever people who know what they are doing !

[RichardColeman]

Think this statement is pretty much again  letting the cat out of the bag that Thailand's tourist numbers are completely bogus as they include mass border entries - including migrant workers who aint tourists.

 

 

 

[lujanit]

21 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

These two Goons have to be the most dangerous people in Thailand.

You left out cha cha and Anutin.

[alyx]

But...But..some other politician simultaneously announced that Test and Go may be scrapped because of Omicron

Mind you, maybe they think that Indian and Russian, who respectively read/write in Hindi and Cyrillic  cannot read words using Latin letters and will not be aware of the restrictions imposed.

Add that Omicron is a Greek letter...and there is the secret of getting these tourists to Thailand without confusing them

[Hanuman2547]

Are these the high quality and high value tourists that the Thai government want?  I don't see either group as being big spenders.  Sure, there will always be some but as a whole these two groups aren't it.

 

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

They are Pipat Ratchakitprakan - the minister for tourism and sports - and Yutthasak Suphasorn, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand or TAT

The two biggest players.... that's one way of putting it.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He stressed that in the absence of Chinese tourists he was concentrating on attracting Indians and Russians in particular, two emerging markets pre-pandemic.

And what happens when Omicron spreads through India like a wild-fire?

[Tarteso]

Moved to Indian forum

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, steven100 said:

this tune is getting so boring  ..... 

Yes indeed:-

 

[mtls2005]

I love the use of "target", often used in a "scheme", meant to "lure" tourists.

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

He then expanded on this with his "Three R's"

Really?

 

[Darkside Gray]

Rich Quality tourists???

[Artben]

A

[tomacht8]

He mentioned something called BCG - The Thai media let that slip by without finding out what he meant.

 

I think the TAT is reading along here. Already to see that the thoughts on modern tourism marketing find their way.

 

I suspect the TAT discovered the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) growth-share matrix as a strategic planning tool.

 

As long as the result is something useful for Thai tourism, it should be fine with me. 

 

 

[dunroaming]

6 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

These two Goons have to be the most dangerous people in Thailand.

Making such wild, and unsupported claims on numbers of Tourists that will visit the Kingdom soon.

All they do is to make Tourist Operators mad as hell now, whereas before the BS worked, and many reopened to the expectation of Tourist feet inside their Business, and spending huge wads of cash, the reality is starting to shine through, and the Tourist Operators are far from happy

Cry Wolf is not working any more.

 

It was only last week when British Airways announced that they were suspending all flights to Thailand until October 2022.  

[Excel]

3 hours ago, hotchilli said:

And what happens when Omicron spreads through India like a wild-fire?

Nobody gives a damn

[thaibook]

"10 million foreign tourists spending 630 billion".  Assuming these are genuine tourists so staying avn average of two weeks, each will spend just over 30,000 per week.  This is hardly big spenders.  Buffet lunch at a good hotel - Erawan or Oriental - is at least 2500 per person before drinks, the rooms are double this  Then there is entertainment, tourism, travel, and shopping.  I would dearly wish to see how these forecasts are built and their characterisation of the different tourist types. 

[worgeordie]

VoV .... how many Russian oligarchs are there , I hope the Government is still

not pouring  multi millions into TAT , as it's becoming a big waste of money

and could be better spent elsewhere , like the jobless .

regards worgeordie

[keysersoze276]

Update- TAT to target Afganistan and Somalia in absence of anyone else. 

[EricTh]

With the removal of Test and Go, don't hope for any huge number of real tourists from any countries coming in.

 

Applying for Thailand Pass is already a headache, now you have to undergo xx days of quarantine in an expensive hotel will just put people off.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, thaibook said:

"10 million foreign tourists spending 630 billion".  Assuming these are genuine tourists so staying avn average of two weeks, each will spend just over 30,000 per week.  This is hardly big spenders.  Buffet lunch at a good hotel - Erawan or Oriental - is at least 2500 per person before drinks, the rooms are double this  Then there is entertainment, tourism, travel, and shopping.  I would dearly wish to see how these forecasts are built and their characterisation of the different tourist types. 

To the other end of the scale a backpacker sleeping in a hostel living on street Phad Thai and Leo.

[Darksidedude]

Quality tourists for sure

[nattaya09]

22 hours ago, meechai said:

???? These guys...at some point someone has to explain to them how low class it is to say such things out loud.

 

It is fine at a board meeting to say we want these types & then of course figure out how they will attract them & why they would choose such a place as Thailand these days over all the truly open 

(no apps, no pcr on arrival, no quarantine etc)  free countries in the world.

 

Believe it or not Thailand no longer represents value in any real way to rich or poor tourists.(aka: cheapskates in TAT )

They seem to genuinely believe that the entire world is clamoring to get into Thailand and the only thing holding these tourists back is their own home country's travel restrictions

[khunpa]

Great! No more poor Farangs!!  Party time!!