The Miracle Years Of Amazing Thailand: TAT Sets Ambitious Goal To Double Tourist Arrivals

[webfact]

TAT sets ambitious goal to double arrivals

By SUCHAT SRITAMA

THE NATION

The Tourism Authority of Thailand yesterday unveiled its latest marketing campaign, dubbed "The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand", tasked with doubling both arrivals and income by 2014.

The agency will spend Bt500 million over the two-year campaign on marketing activities and communications both here and abroad, with Bt210 million to be used to continue building awareness and communications with targeted markets outside the country.

The agency will earmark Bt180 million for activities, Bt60 million for domestic marketing and Bt50 million for international marketing.

Prakit Phiriyakiat, deputy governor for marketing communications, said that at least seven big events have already been lined up over 15 months to attract foreign tourists.

Listed participating events are Formula 1 motor racing, the football league in the United Kingdom, Snow Festival in Sao Paolo, Thailand Golf Open and Australian Open.

International celebrities, particularly those from China, which is now considering Thai TV stars, will be invited to visit Thailand.

TAT will continue promoting traditional Thai festivals like Loy Krathong as world events.

It would also boost domestic tourism through this campaign, with 180 activities planned for the rest of this year and also next year.

"TAT will put on many events and activities to encourage local people to travel across regions in the country," Prakit said.

TAT would work with private organisations like the Tourism Council of Thailand as well as local communities to create activities to lure travellers.

TAT projects total arrivals climbing to more than 19 million next year, up from the forecast of 17 million this year.

The Yingluck Shinawatra government has vowed to use The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand campaign to double arrivals and income.

The government wants to see 30 million arrivals per year by 2014 while income from domestic and international markets would reach Bt2 trillion per year.

The Tourism Ministry has said it would maintain tourism stimulus measures such as waiving visa fees for certain countries to lure foreign tourists and the tax deduction to encourage local travel.

The ministry is seeking a special budget from the government to develop attractions and upgrade the entire industry.

-- The Nation 2011-09-09

[Buchholz]

The agency will spend Bt500 million

The Yingluck Shinawatra government has vowed to use The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand campaign to double arrivals and income.

well, there's a Half A Billion Baht gone.

.

[ginjag]

The agency will spend Bt500 million

The Yingluck Shinawatra government has vowed to use The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand campaign to double arrivals and income.

well, there's a Half A Billion Baht gone.

.

Why not spend 500 mil snuffing out the scams--same as the war on drugs.

[nigelnuch]

Is the Formula 1 motor racing taking place on the streets of Pattaya?

[Soutpeel]

Is the Formula 1 motor racing taking place on the streets of Pattaya?

Now that would be interesting....

[Thaddeus]

Is the Formula 1 motor racing taking place on the streets of Pattaya?

Every day, simultaneously combined with the MotoGP.

[Scaler]

How about loosening Thailand's visa regulations...

[Dario]

This will never work unless the Thais would treat their visitor as guests, e.g. not ripping them off in every possible situation, robbing and killing them and police and immigration treat them fairly >>> Overstay in paradise: Swede with heart disease thrown in prison. Read that article, it will make you understand that this anticipated doubling of tourist arrivals is not very likely to happen anytime soon.

[steelepulse]

The new slogan rolls right off the tongue!

[laurentbkk]

Beside the fact that hopping for more tourists is good thinking ,I dont think the Kingdom needs a 500 millions baht campaign. Thailand is already well know for various aspects , night life ,scenery ,food ...Maybe they want to show a different Thailand ? murders , jet ski and tuk tuk scams,corruption etc .... sorry the list is too long. I saw on the news the murderer of that French engineer in Nonthaburi has been released on bail ? wow nice treatment for murderers here ....

[steveyinasia]

The government sees this as an investment strategy, get more tourist in, more to rip off so all their little side businesses will get more profit. brilliant thinking on behalf of the government, using public money to boost their own businesses.

[robsamui]

Once again the right hand is totally at odds with the left hand.

The right hand is cooking up castle-in-the-sky fantasies to bring in tourists but, down at street level, the gleeful left hand is turning off its taxi meters, detouring into gold shops, scamming visitors with pre-scratched vehicles and jet skis, and all the rest of the grass-roots scams.

"My goodness me, we'll flood the place with most excellent gold-crusted tourists," declares the right hand.

"Ho yus mate, pour 'em in and we'll <deleted>*k 'em over," grins the left hand.

Why not spent a BIG chunk of this money in some clever PR which exposes and actually prosecutes the street-scamming scum? A state-sponsored drive together with documentary TV coverage,(Miami Vice styling), with grim-faced BIB and troopers with machine guns rounding up the jet ski maffia and jailing them wrapped in chains? Etc, etc, etc, etc.

But that might be tricky, of course. Firstly it would be a HUGE loss of face to actually admit that all these tourist-ripping scams exited in the first place, which means that they'll never get cleaned up if they 'don't exist'.

Or they might spend a few million baht in educating all the puzzled prison and immigration officials who can't work out what all the fuss is about with these dead or overstaying farang riff-raff . . . they are, after all, only one step up from illegal Burmese workers . . .

And then it would have to sit next to the headlines that the exiled criminal ex-PM of Thailand who's had billions of dollars of assets in Thailand frozen and is wanted on God knows how many charges of fraud and corruption has just pulled a fast one and put his sister in his place and now looks as if he's getting a pardon and might be able to return.

But they have at least got one thing right. It truly is 'The Miracle of Amazing Thailand'. Forget the LOS - it should be NOS - Nigeria On Steroids.

R

Edited September 9, 2011 by robsamui

[mjordan]

well, there's a Half A Billion Baht gone.

.

I hate to be negative, but wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to just reverse some of the stupid tourist visa regulations that they recently added?

..Or perhaps stop requiring their tourists to go to a neighboring country anytime they want an extended visa to stay longer in Thailand.

Why spend so much money when there are dozens of practically free solutions to the problem...

[overherebc]

The agency will spend Bt500 million

The Yingluck Shinawatra government has vowed to use The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand campaign to double arrivals and income.

well, there's a Half A Billion Baht gone.

.

Why not spend 500 mil snuffing out the scams--same as the war on drugs.

Give me the cash now and I'll print the tourist arrival figures for you straight away.

[prakhonchai nick]

It isn't just the scams that need to be dealt with along with the corruption, police shake downs etc, but the infrastructure, particularly in Bangkok, Pattaya and other tourist areas, needs to be much improved, before flooding the market with another 10million+ tourists

Once again cart before the horse!

[elgato]

The new slogan rolls right off the tongue!

I can't wait to see some of the tv and magazine ads!

[shawndoc]

Save the advertising campaign, legalize marijuana. That frees up anti-drug resources to go after Yaa Bah (sp?) and other nasty drugs, generates some extra tax revenue, and will bring in tourists from uptight western countries like crazy. And as a bonus stoned people are less likely to be violent that drunks, making night spots safer.

[chooka]

How about loosening Thailand's visa regulations...

I agree. They just announced that they were going to tighten the visa requirements. I can just see all the brainstrust from TAT sitting around the table discussing how to increase tourism numbers. I can see Somchai the new wizz kid taking the floor with his pitch " lets drop the Amazing and replace it with Miracle, and that's not all let's make it harder to get visa's and I garantee tourism numbers will double. The whole room comes to thier feet and gives him a standing ovation. Somchai is promoted to director of tourism.

[alant]

Welcome to Thailand, top things to enjoy are, being ripped off and intimidated by tuk tuk drivers in phuket, being ripped off and intimidated by jet ski operators in phuket, being told you cant have a beer in a bar between 2-5pm as the police are having a fund raising promotion.

I joke of course, we all know this campaign will be a success and the figures WILL clearly show this to be so.

[seykota]

TAT marketing always makes me wonder about how often the strategy team must change.

The past 2 or 3 years they have been ranting about "Quality tourists not quantity" and then they move on to creating a target of doubling the gross tourist arrival numbers. Also their definition of "Quality tourists" revolves around short term (1 - 2 week) punters that stay in 5 star hotels in Hua Hin, Phuket etc. On the other hand other government departments are attempting to have policies that encourage (many) tourists to visit non- tourist destinations, for example Issan

So which is it?

[ingvar]

I wonder how many tourists know anything about the corruption, scams and thugs?

Of all the millions of tourists arriving to Thailand, I think very few actually follow any news at all, let alone local news. And when they hire a tuck tuck in Phuket for 100 - 500 bath to drive 500 m they maybe don't see it as a scam, because they don't know its a scam.

My sister and her family comes here regularly and they are just here to rest and enjoy the sunshine and beaches. They never rent jet skies, stays mostly at the hotel with the hotel beach and only goes out in the evening for some strolling around and dinner. I think this goes for most tourists arriving in Thailand.

[ozzieovaseas]

How about loosening Thailand's visa regulations...

How loose can they possibly get??

[pepi2005]

I'm sure the doubling of the numbers will already be announced before 2014. :jap:

[softgeorge]

They could try counting all the transit passengers arriving at Swampy that would triple the numbers or is this already being done? Oh what the heck just fudge the stats no one will know.

[VictorOne]

Is the Formula 1 motor racing taking place on the streets of Pattaya?

Now that would be interesting....

Won't matter too much where they hold it (or plan to hold it) It will be light years away anyway. And will all depend how muct the director (of TAT) thinks he can scam off the takings anyway!

[Sydebolle]

Prakit Phiriyakiat might be interested to get properly briefed before announcing anything:

- the present tourist visa regulations are ridiculous, contra-productive and hostile

- change the goveror of Phuket and clean up the various messes (Tuk Tuks, Jet Sky scams etc.)

- review operating hours for those places catering to tourist's needs; latter being on holiday and not wishing to retire at 7h30 pm for the day

- clean up the most corrupt places like Pattaya

- avoid little scams like blaming tourists for pick-pocketing at the duty free shops of the Kingdom

- before throwing a just-recently-recovered-Suede into the slammer for overstaying his visa under an oxygen tent of an ICU in a hospital get the facts together and then either fine him with the normal fees or show that you really care by adhering to the "exception to the rule" philosophy

- do away with those unfriendly immigration grouches on arrival and speed up the passport-page-flipping-hobby by the same officials

But then, what do we know - after all we are all "Aliens" inmidst of those fidels - the next best thing to the latter is sliced bread!

Edited September 9, 2011 by metisdead
Font reset, use default forum font when posting.

[softgeorge]

How about loosening Thailand's visa regulations...

I agree. They just announced that they were going to tighten the visa requirements. I can just see all the brainstrust from TAT sitting around the table discussing how to increase tourism numbers. I can see Somchai the new wizz kid taking the floor with his pitch " lets drop the Amazing and replace it with Miracle, and that's not all let's make it harder to get visa's and I garantee tourism numbers will double. The whole room comes to thier feet and gives him a standing ovation. Somchai is promoted to director of tourism.

Sounds like somchai purchased one of those degrees from the local university.

[madmitch]

Well, the budget has gone from 8bn baht (originally requestdd by TAT) to 3bn baht to 500m baht.

Maybe the tourist arrival targets will follow the same pattern.

NB I must say that the English in the article is very misleading in parts. Not very well proof-read.

Edited September 9, 2011 by madmitch

[TechnikaIII]

Is the Formula 1 motor racing taking place on the streets of Pattaya?

Yep. Formula 1 tuk tuks in Pattaya and Phuket, (you are encouraged to argue the price with the driver - they'll be ready for you at every pit stop) and newly developed Formula 1 vans and buses for long distance events, (which can be utilised as a high speed border run service.)

Edited September 9, 2011 by TechnikaIII

[wlcart]

Save the advertising campaign, legalize marijuana. That frees up anti-drug resources to go after Yaa Bah (sp?) and other nasty drugs, generates some extra tax revenue, and will bring in tourists from uptight western countries like crazy. And as a bonus stoned people are less likely to be violent that drunks, making night spots safer.

I vote for this idea.