Thai Tourism Plans Comeback After Unrest

[kuffki]

I am seriously wondering who does the accounting.

Each tourist on average spends $2000 this includes-hotel, food, taxi, alcohol, massages, shopping,phone calls, laundry, airfare(if used Thai, if not still pay airport taxes etc) etc etc etc

So if 3 000 000 people do not come the loss is $6000000000

These drop according to Thai government is due to recent troubles, but what about drop from euro being below 40 baht, and pound around 45 and au$ at 26?

I think its time they use real calculators not "special" ones

[dumball]

Oh , stop worrying about all those silly numbers , tourism is only a spit in the bucket and only 6% of GDP who needs tourism anyway with all of those xpats supporting Isaan , geez , some people !!!

[anotheruser]

I agree with the poster that said just one event could destroy Thai tourism for a long time. There is a lot of resentment harbored out there on both sides and it would only take one lone wolf to do such a thing. One big BOOM going off Bali style would be devastating. Anybody remember how long it took Bali to get over that image?

I obviously hope that doesn't happen. For me I think a no confidence vote on visiting Thailand is very much justified. How can the even begin to discuss people coming back when there is still a curfew? As far as I know the majority of tourists will not go to a place under curfew. Given Thailand's track record is there any reason to think things will ever change?

[seanocasey]

Oh , stop worrying about all those silly numbers , tourism is only a spit in the bucket and only 6% of GDP who needs tourism anyway with all of those xpats supporting Isaan , geez , some people !!!

we can shut our minds and live in hope but the facts speak for themselves, maybe look at Isaan villages to see the no of people now unemployed over the last 12months factories closing, most employed in tourist industry idle minds ferment, wife has told me there is trouble brewing lots of angry people as her father was previously in politics and she is not a person who exaggerates I listen to her there is big trouble down the road.

there is one consolation for the tourists that still come, no queues at emigration.

3mil down more like 6mil

[jayjay0]

You people are not looking at the over all picture. Tourism is still down from the Yellow shirts and bound to have a long term effect as a result of the red shirts.

That being said lets look at the baht. It is no longer way down compared to other countries it has been holding its own and growing. It seems like any advertising for tourist is into five star hotels or resorts.

I believe that there is a huge market out there for good three star accommodation. When I say good I mean good. Not the usual build a nice building and never do any upkeep on it.

There is also a lot of families that Thailand could reach out to. Give good bargans to children. Remember that to the Thais they are still a baby at 15 give them children discounts. Try to get the local air trafic to give a break to them.

Time to reach out to other than the moneyed people. Go for the middle class people. You don't have to do any thing for the back packer they will come any way.JMHO

[anotheruser]

Well they have obviously already blown the whole quality tourist angle. They have no choice but to be happy with anything they get at this point. That will most likely be the mongers along with backpackers.

[kuffki]

Well they have obviously already blown the whole quality tourist angle. They have no choice but to be happy with anything they get at this point. That will most likely be the mongers along with backpackers.

With current exchange rates, backpackers from where? Europe 39 baht to euro- i doubt it, same for UK and AU

I do not think any family would risk it with kids not to mention again with current exchange rates, family's holiday cost just went up by minimum 20%

[EarthAlien]

Six months, they have thier collective heads up where the suns not shining. More like six years!

Agreed,... reality check required!

How about a good first step: Cut the #$(*&*($ curfew!!

Oh yeah,... great for tourism if we could only all come out and play in peace and total confidence of safety once the army has gone back to barracks and left the boys in brown to protect us from their benefactor Mr T and their nefarious and heavily armed red brothers! I say keep the freaking Curfew going for another 12 months! I value my own and my family's safety than tourism dollars that do not pay my bills anyway!

"For sure there will be deals around but if you think we're going to slash the rates of our hotels, I don't think that's going to occur," he said. "We learned long ago that if you take rates down, they're going to take a long time to go up."

So.. we decided that if numbers were down we'd just put all our prices up.... easy..

Oh yeah,... that's a really "Thai" way of thinking isn't it,... a complete reverse of the common law of business and demand and supply. Devoid in common sense which after 5 years here have just come to realize that "common sense" is actually not understood by the average Thai,.. it seems to be foreign concept to them!

the long term 10 year plan?

There are some other issues Thailand must pass through too before they start convincing tourists. some can't be discussed in public or on here. I can only tell that the country has a long way to go, before it looks inviting again the way it once did.

Agreed and Agreed!

[anotheruser]

Well they have obviously already blown the whole quality tourist angle. They have no choice but to be happy with anything they get at this point. That will most likely be the mongers along with backpackers.

With current exchange rates, backpackers from where? Europe 39 baht to euro- i doubt it, same for UK and AU

I do not think any family would risk it with kids not to mention again with current exchange rates, family's holiday cost just went up by minimum 20%

If you are willing to stay in a complete dump and eat amongst rubbish and rats it is still possible to be on a tight budget. I do see what you are saying though.

[kek]

Well they have obviously already blown the whole quality tourist angle. They have no choice but to be happy with anything they get at this point. That will most likely be the mongers along with backpackers.

It's got to be a "Back to Basics" approach.

Target the single tourist - these people have money to burn: No spouse, no kids, no extra bills. It's all spent on themselves.

So, in no particular order ...

1. Extend closing times to be at the discretion of bar and disco owners in all major tourist areas including Bangkok.

2. Get the police off the backs and out of the pockets of entertainment venues.

3. Cut fares on Thai International and domestic flights and increase the baggage allowances.

4. Cut visa fees and airport taxes.

5. All hotels must book at double occupancy - no single room supplements and no joiner fees.

6. Scammers (jet ski operators, dishonest bar staff, Phuket tuk-tuks, airport swindles etc) get automatic gaol sentence.

7. Legalize prostitution - we all know it's there so why not be honest about it and tax it.

8. Try to lower the value of the Baht on the currency markets.

anyone got any more for the list?

[BSJ]

I still haven't bought my ticket for 2 weeks in LOS at xmas time. Cambodia and Vietnam are on my shopping list now. Factoring in exchange rate, airfares and accommodation, basically it's who ever offers the best deal wins!

[selftaopath]

Interesting that they will not drop hotel prices as an incentive for tourists to travel to Thailand. Thailand has always been exotic place to visit for your average Joe and one of the main attractions was that it was cheap. In todays enviroment Thailand is no longer a value for money place to visit, the Thai people have become greedy and see the avarage tourist as a walking cash machine. Surely they need to come up with some incentives to bring back the tourists, reduced hotel reates being one of them.

I think this way of thinking is funny:

This week officials from the tourism industry, including hotel associations and airlines, met to devise a marketing plan to help revive the industry, said Prakit Piriyakiet, spokesman for the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The reason I think it's funny is because the issue of Rule of Law is not part of the plan, double pricing isn't, corruption certainly isn't, and consequences e.g. jail for red law breakers seem be a moot point.

GEEZE. Perhaps doing more than cleaning the streets would be appealing?

[selftaopath]

I think the tourism can recover but the underground reds will never let it happen.

The police already found 4 vehicles loaded with explosives. All it would take is 1 event.

Myself i am avoiding tourist packed areas

This could help with congestion. If the "know it alls" use the same mentality which prompted all trash bins removed from public domains (b/c of bombs found) then autos aught to be next. Remove em all off the streets. Ok maybe just the parked ones :-)

[anotheruser]

The removal of trash bins first occurred in Tokyo after the saran gas attacks. The Thai government if they did such a thing are just following a monkey see monkey do approach. They are caught like deer in a headlight. Their next approach will be to tell terrorists "up to you krub"

[selftaopath]

During all of the Thai unrest , Cambodian tourism has risen 10% whilst trade with Vietnam has tripled that with Thailand , once tourists divert to other entry points , tourism will rise even further and Vietnam intends to boost its trading level also .

Thailand has shot itself in both feet it seems and it looks like their losses have only just begun , especialy with the riel being good value for the $us at this time also .

Is Rumsfeld related to Thai elite? His thinking was similar i.e. STAY THE COURSE - I KNOW IT ALL.

[millwall_fan]

My 5 point plan to get us out of this mess would be:

1. Reassure the majority of Thais that there will be an election on Nov 14th. (ideally earlier as Nov is into the tourist season)

2. Devalue the baht by 20%

3. Give all tourists arriving from visa exempt countries unlimited 60 day visas for the next 12 months whether they arrive by air or land.

4. Agree a 2am closing time for bars and restaurants (including ones owned by the police)

5. Mount a quality advertising campaign in Europe/Oz/N.America stressing Thailand as a fun and economical destination

- not the old 5 star hotel crap they put in their last ads.

oh...and give consideration to Kek's 8 points above (some less practical than my 5 points but equally valid!!!!)

[doggie888888]

They need a slogan for any PR/marketing efforts. Might I suggest "where the bloody hel_l have you been?"

[jcicero]

Go full forward right now into a Visit Thailand campaign is a waste of time and money

After last weeks events were shown live all around the world, this is the worst time

to try and rush a Visit Thailand incentive program, will end up being a wast of tiime

and money.

The first thing Thailand as a hole needs to do is get their house in order. People are

not going to plan holidays to Thailand any time soon after seeing those scenes on TV

last week. Why would anyone come here?

They need to work on the political and the social issues of the Thai people before

they can even start consider welcoming guests to Thai.

The hard core Thai travelers will still come here thru thick and thin as will be back

pack crew and that will just about do it.

Maybe next year

You're right about it being a waste of money, but that is what the TAT is all about. Wasting money. They will take their whole "staff" and friends to stay at an expensive 5 star hotel/retreat to "talk about it" or they will all go on some expensive trips. They will end up with the same "land of smiles" campaign that they always use.

It was also funny to see the article above that says: "The Thai capital has been mostly scrubbed clean". Where does this write get that idea? A few streets were cleaned, but the rest of the capital is still in the same shape.

[dutchchiangmai]

Let’s see, we had the closure of the airport in 2008 where all the tourists were left on their own and get stuck for several days.

Then we had our airport scams, the Jet Ski scams, the outraged prices of the toek toeks in Phuket and the beating of an older couple because of a parking spot in Phuket. Off course we also have our occasional tourist drugging in Pattaya and Phuket.

If you are able to survive all these things then the fun really starts. Triple prices for foreigners at zoo’s and national parks, two menu prices, 1 for Thais and 1 for foreigners and the constant overpricing of your local toek toek drive and don’t forget, the all year around open hunting season on tourists for their money.

Then off course we have our nice and flexible visa rules for people who want to extend their vacations in the LOS. We had our 2 months of smog problems in Chiang Mai with sometimes visibility of 10 meters and now we had our own warzone in Bangkok.

I can see how appealing Thailand must be in the eyes of all of these tourists. And to make things even more appealing, raising prices sometimes with 20% due to a lack of customers.

It would be nice if Thais who work in the tourist business would start with the most important thing, treating tourists again as guests instead of walking ATM machines.

[toenail]

During all of the Thai unrest , Cambodian tourism has risen 10% whilst trade with Vietnam has tripled that with Thailand , once tourists divert to other entry points , tourism will rise even further and Vietnam intends to boost its trading level also .

Thailand has shot itself in both feet it seems and it looks like their losses have only just begun , especialy with the riel being good value for the $us at this time also .

**************

"Thailand shot itself in the foot" because they cannot force rules and regulations on anything.,.even when a political rally can become too large to control. Not only did the Red Thugs managed to do its harm to tourism and economy, so did the Yellow party a couple years back.

[hmficc]

"For sure there will be deals around but if you think we're going to slash the rates of our hotels, I don't think that's going to occur," he said. "We learned long ago that if you take rates down, they're going to take a long time to go up."

So.. we decided that if numbers were down we'd just put all our prices up.... easy..

Yes, Thats what Thai Airways is doing. Last year $1350 from LAX to BKK- this year $1600.

I asked about load factor-no worries plenty of empty seats!

[Ulysses G.]

Well they have obviously already blown the whole quality tourist angle. They have no choice but to be happy with anything they get at this point. That will most likely be the mongers along with backpackers.

Mongers, backpackers and expats are pretty much the whole "tourist' market right now. A lot of places are glad to see them.

[mommysboy]

All the reports I ever see relating to Thai business appear difficult to believe, or easily misinterpreted. My guess is tourism will not recover for many years as far as the farang market is concerned primarily because of the baht rate, but also because of the street riots which means the market makers withdraw offers to Thailand. Thailand's political differences will continue to exist and Cambodia will be a significant alternative.

However I reckon tourism from other areas will make up most of the shortfall although this may not happen quickly.

As to the jibes about the fat beer drinking tourist, if I were a hotelier I'd view him as my ideal customer, much rather him than some <deleted> with his head stuck up his proverbial.

[jalansanitwong]

Maybe TAT should procure JJ the jetski hirer in Phuket as a goodwill ambassador!That should help get LOS back in the big tourist bucks!!!!

Edited May 28, 2010 by jalansanitwong

[EyesWideOpen]

It is a bit unseemly to me for TAT to be fretting about tourism numbers while water is still being sprayed the remains of Central World..... A modest waiting period would be in order. Instead of these mindless tourism " road shows" that TAT is so fond of, I suggest a different approach. Every single long term expat or short term visitor here can be made into in essence a good will ambassador for Thailand. I personally have had many friends come and and visit me here in Thailand. So I think TAT should be getting the inside of the house in order, before worrying about the front yard........ IE cut down on the scams, and the general poor treatment of tourists. May I suggest the death penalty for drugging of tourists by entertainment workers as a start. A friend of mine was drugged at Nana Hotel and almost died. He swore to never come back, and I am sure he passed his story and feelings onto his friends.......

Thailand reminds me of the roadside restaurant system of business. Meaning the restaurant by the highway sells you some really crappy food. When you complain they shrug their shoulders and tell you to leave. Then five minutes later someone else stopping from the highway does the same thing. And on and on and on.....Except now there are not many cars on the highway, so this system will work very well in the future.

Sort of sad really, as in many ways this is a wonderful place with many advantages. I love being here, and can certainly take the good with the bad. However other potential tourists may not wish to do that.

[SoiGirlHunter]

Here is a telling contrast. I just moved from vt1 to central pattaya. as i was moving the thai landlord was

doing everything to make me stay, except drop the price, she tried to raise it! i said no thanks then she

showed me a crap studio for a little less. i said cmon its low season, she then told me "oh there is not going

to be low season this year" i said how do you know, she pointed over to her bar and there were

2 farangs (usually 10) and said "look at farang."

my next condo owned/operated by farang cut his rate by 50% and bent over backwards to get me in. His

thai are top notch.

[kevozman1]

I do not think that tourism will be hit too hard for most

tourist groups apart from Families. I can't see people

with kids being attracted to somewhere that seems as

volatile as Thailand.

[LaoPo]

I do not think that tourism will be hit too hard for most

tourist groups apart from Families. I can't see people

with kids being attracted to somewhere that seems as

volatile as Thailand.

Why is that ?

Speaking for European tourism to far away destinations, Thailand amongst those, sales are way down.

People are staying closer to home (within their own country or elsewhere in Euroland), the Euro is down and versus the Baht it has blown around -20% (!)since January this year making it 20% more expensive for European tourists to come to Thailand.

Traveling to the US is out of the question since the Euro is down against the US$ because of the economic worries in Euroland

The economy is extremely fragile and people are saving more money for unexpected times.

I therefore disagree with you that tourism will not be hit so hard.

For Thailand it will.

Next to that, Asian tourism to Thailand (the most important market for LOS with 60+% of TOTAL inbound tourism) will be down also; Asian countries and tourists are not too keen about unrest situations and will opt for other destinations.

The Mariana islands for instance, Indonesia (Bali is a BIG hit!) , Philippines and even Malaysia.

LaoPo

[jackr]

Yep, unrest notwithstanding, this lot seem to have forgotten the state of the economy still. They say 13 mil will be visiting when they know darn well it'll be more like half that.

[LaoPo]

Yep, unrest notwithstanding, this lot seem to have forgotten the state of the economy still. They say 13 mil will be visiting when they know darn well it'll be more like half that.

What the Bureau of Tourism always "forget" to mention is that in those 13 million there are around 2-3 million "tourists" from Malaysia (around 1,5 Million), Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam etc.

Also included are multiple tourists who come to Thailand but visit the surrounding countries like Cambodia and Laos also.

Next to that we have the visa-runners and repeating tourists.

It adds up

LaoPo