Foreign Tourists Get Their Own Thai Phone Number

[webfact]

Swedes Get Their Own Thai Number

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set up a number of international telephone “hotlines” to help foreign visitors get updated 24-hour tourism information and have their queries answered about any aspect of travel and tourism to and within Thailand.

This Global Number Services project is an extension of the TAT Call Centre, which is based in Bangkok. According to monitoring statistics, over 80 per cent of the calls are from Thai tourists or domestic calls. Foreign tourists end up incurring significant costs in calling the TAT Call Centre.

TAT Governor Suraphon Svetsreni said, “As part of the lessons we have learnt from the recent political unrest, we decided it was important to set up a number of international call centres abroad too. This will not only help during emergency situations, but also in answering the hundreds of very routine enquiries that we get.”

The Governor said the international call centres will help foreign tourists access Thai tourism information conveniently, quickly, and at less cost.

At present, this pilot project provides a 24-hour service in English and Japanese for major markets; such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, USA, Japan and Australia.

Dialing numbers for these countries:

Sweden

Tel: +46840838833

United Kingdom

Tel: +442033550430 or 02033550430

USA

Tel: +15166196810 or 5166196810

Japan

Tel: +81345209521 or 0345209521

Australia

Tel: +61280147129 or 0280147129

The calls will be charged at the local rate for the callers regardless of whether they are calling from a landline or mobile phones.

TAT expects to receive over 3,000 calls per month (equivalent to about 1 per cent of tourists from Japan, UK, Sweden, USA and Australia who travel to Thailand each month).

In addition, the information can be provided via an Internet inquiry or video live chat. Tourists can log-on to http://www.tourismthailand.org/ and click on the “1672 tourist hotline” icon on the lower right-hand side of the web page. After selecting the language, visitors will be asked to fill in basic details such as their name and e-mail address.

Source: scandasia.com

-- SCANDASIA

2010-08-14

[Thailand]

Surprisingly sensible.

Will definitely be needed for the huge influx of foreign tourists as predicted by TOT and to advise tourists on what to do when Thailand decides to shoot itself in the foot again- provoking major trouble at the Cambodian border next on the list?

[sam666]

I've never met a swede or a scand that hasn't spoken great english ...

[robsamui]

What's the betting that this is merely a recorded message . . . I can't see anybody Thai sitting there for weeks on end just on the offchance that somebody phones ...

R

[Jimi007]

Sounds like TAT wasting more money to appear as though they actually do something. Who has every called the Tourism Authority of Thailand? I know I never have...

[PoorSucker]

I've never met a swede or a scand that hasn't spoken great english ...

Scandinavians speaks better English than "native" speakers.

30% of the English language was introduced by the Vikings.

Edited August 14, 2010 by PoorSucker

[Deez]

If this is anything like the rest of the Call Centers in thailand. It will be completely useless.

[peter991]

I have a couple of thoughts on this.

1. The phone number given for Australia is a Sydney (NSW) phone number. I have an international dialing card, so it's cheaper for me to phone Thailand (from Australia) than to call from Perth (west coast of Australia) to Sydney (east coast of Australia) on my mobile.

2. I have DFAT (Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade) website continually updated with information on all 'trouble-spots' around the globe.

3. If the information is in fact LIVE (and not a recorded message), how honest is the information given out. When my partner's Thai passport only had 4 months validity and he wished to return to Thailand to renew it, he was told by the Thai embassy in Canberra (Australia) that he could only fly with Thai Airways (Thailand's national carrier). Lies! He could have travelled with ANY airline (Thai was $AU1200 PER-BKK-PER, JetStar was $AU468).

Peter

[astral]

Is there a number inside Thailand????

Why would foreign tourists need a number back home??

The families of visitors might, but I can't help thinking TAT has missed the point.

[tracer5050]

hope it works

[sirchai]

I've never met a swede or a scand that hasn't spoken great english ...

Scandinavians speaks better English than "native" speakers.

30% of the English language was introduced by the Vikings.

Guess Scandinavians speak better Scandinavian than East German wall jumpers do.

You shouldn't underestimate yellow snow in Alaska. Cheers.

[frankthetank]

I've never met a swede or a scand that hasn't spoken great english ...

Scandinavians speaks better English than "native" speakers.

30% of the English language was introduced by the Vikings.

just looking on wiki, found the following:

A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:[84]

French (langue d'oïl): 41%

"Native" English: 33%

Latin: 15%

Old Norse: 2%

Dutch: 1%

Other: 10%

from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

I think Viking is refered to as old norse.

sorry off topi, I know.

Edited August 14, 2010 by frankthetank

[asiawatcher]

Sounds like TAT wasting more money to appear as though they actually do something. Who has every called the Tourism Authority of Thailand? I know I never have...

They look like Skype numbers - this means USD30 a year per line. Big spending on behalf of TAT but look at the PR side ... smart? Sensible? or another con on trying to improve Thailand - but I guess its a positive move nonetheless. Will test it and find out...

[FarangCravings]

They will probably only have thai speaking operators

[asiawatcher]

Just tried calling the Australian Number - response - number does not exist! (yawn).

[astral]

The UK number does ring.

[hungryhippo]

Sounds like TAT wasting more money to appear as though they actually do something. Who has every called the Tourism Authority of Thailand? I know I never have...

Because you live here, it's for tourists not ex-pats

Is there a number inside Thailand????

Why would foreign tourists need a number back home??

The families of visitors might, but I can't help thinking TAT has missed the point.

Tourists wanting to know if it's still safe to go on their trip to Thailand. If they need a visa, yada yada..

[Hardie]

I've never met a swede or a scand that hasn't spoken great english ...

Scandinavians speaks better English than "native" speakers.

30% of the English language was introduced by the Vikings.

just looking on wiki, found the following:

A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:[84]

French (langue d'oïl): 41%

"Native" English: 33%

Latin: 15%

Old Norse: 2%

Dutch: 1%

Other: 10%

from : http://en.wikipedia....nglish_language

I think Viking is refered to as old norse.

sorry off topi, I know.

That sounds about right. 30% is obviously not. Similar figures would probably hold for Khmer, 'native', Sanskrit and Chinese in modern Thai. Off-topic OK, but fairly innocuous topic to begin with.... <deleted>...

[Jimi007]

Sounds like TAT wasting more money to appear as though they actually do something. Who has every called the Tourism Authority of Thailand? I know I never have...

Because you live here, it's for tourists not ex-pats

Is there a number inside Thailand????

Why would foreign tourists need a number back home??

The families of visitors might, but I can't help thinking TAT has missed the point.

Tourists wanting to know if it's still safe to go on their trip to Thailand. If they need a visa, yada yada..

Kind of a captain obvious post... But my question still stands. Has anyone ever wanted or needed to call TAT? I would check my State Department's website for travel information. What tourist has even heard of TAT?