Tat Targets Threefold Jump In Arrivals

[george]

TAT targets threefold jump in arrivals

Ability to handle goal leaves many sceptical

BANGKOK: The tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has become more progressive, even outrageous, these days in setting growth targets for the country's tourism industry, projecting a whopping threefold jump in arrivals over the next seven years to 30 million in 2010.

TAT governor Juthamas Siriwan released the new target this week. But industry leaders shook their heads in disagreement as they suggested the country should opt for quality rather than quantity.

There are also questions emerging as to how the country's tourism infrastructure could be developed to cope with the massive rise in tourist flows.

Vichit Na Ranong, chairman of the Tourism Council of Thailand, expressed concern that such dramatic growth might damage the tourism sector, as it would likely to draw mass-market tourists with low spending to the country.

At the same time, he raised the question on the readiness of facilities to support the significant growth, particularly flight availability and hotel rooms.

But more importantly, even if the country could build facilities such as new hotels, the drastic change could hurt the overall economy from the oversupply of services.

``Look at the Philippines when it aggressively built many hotels during the World Bank meeting and when the event was over, the hotel industry was left in a bad shape for almost ten years,'' said Mr Vichit.

He suggested that the government focus on increasing average spending per tourist instead of concentrating on the number of arrivals.

``At the end of the day, we need the money, not the number of tourists, and imagine if Thailand drew many more mass-market visitors _ the facilities would be run down and the whole image of the country's tourism would change,'' said Mr Vichit.

With a large number of visitors, the industry could be dominated by one particular market like China, he said.

As well, to handle 30 million tourists, the country has to properly distribute visitors to different parts of the country to create a balance in the industry which means more areas need to be promoted.

Prakit Chinamornpong, secretary-general of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), said it was quite impossible to have 30 million tourists within the next seven years.

``With such a target, it means we have to grow by about 20% every year,'' said Mr Prakit.

Past growth records in the last two decades showed that Thailand had rarely achieved over 20% annual growth, except 1987 and 1988 when tourist arrivals were only about 3-4 million.

Over the past 10 years, the growth rate was between 1% and 12% while the latest figures showed the number of tourists dropped from 10.8 million in 2002 to 9.8 million in 2003, mainly because of the Sars outbreak and the war in Iraq.

Mr Prakit also said the government's bid to add 300,000 new hotel rooms over the next three years to support the national tourism growth plan was ambitious but it had to provide extensive incentives to attract investors.

He said the industry had to be careful before investing in new hotels as it could create an oversupply if the goal was not achievable.

On the 10-billion-baht low-interest fund to support hotel operators in their bid to renovate their properties or invest in new projects, Mr Prakit said he was concerned about the procedures for obtaining loans.

``In the past, when the government wanted to lend a helping hand by granting low-interest loans for hotels, the process was so complex that only few hotels could apply for loans,'' he said.

However, Mrs Juthamas said the government had set a high target to encourage both the public and private sectors to try harder. After all, she said, tourism was one of the country's highest foreign revenue earners.

--Bangkok Post 2004-01-07

[NedKelly]

Bloody ###### 30 million ! Where will they all go ? Can you imagine with hte current infrastructure it would be impossible to move those numbers around. Even now during high season it is almost impossible to get a train ticket or a flight to somewhere like phuket. There is a lot of air tickets allocated to overseas operators who sell either retail or wholesale so how would they be able to offer business if they cannot guarantee a seat ? The road to Pattaya would be bumper to bumper with buses mini vans and taxis, hotels would have ques to reception areas, attractions would be over run with visitors and so on.

So TAT would encourage visitors to see other places.......Unseen Thailand.....ok great idea, we all know Thailand has a lot to offer, but to think that in 7 years there will be busloads of tourists lining up willing to pay exhorbitant fees to visit tourist locations, is nothing short of fantastic. I would be interested to know if TAT's new governor has the slightest idea of what sustainable tourism is and if she actually gives a shit !

[huski]

i think the idea is to get tourists to purchase the new multi country visa

they start their holiday in thailand for a couple of weeks, blow 90 percent of their money and then get pushed to one of the neighboring countries to drain the rest, relieving the congestion.

[bartender100]

Don't think they need to worry about increasing the numbers of visitors.Once the new bar and restaurant hours have spread round the world,they will be lucky if they have any tourists

[Miksu]

Don't think they need to worry about increasing the numbers of visitors.Once the new bar and restaurant hours have spread round the world,they will be lucky if they have any tourists

Jep.... they'll suggest 12pm closing time on Jan 13th. Or so say the people in here:

http://board.nanaplaza.com/showflat.php?Ca...b=5&o=7&fpart=1

who can read thai.

Stupid if this will happen. Too bad I already have my flight ticket booked and cannot really cancel it either. There won't be any fun in Thailand anymore after this. I think next Feb will be the last time I'm gonna visit the country? Makes me feel sad, tho.

[NedKelly]

The new visa mentioned above may be just a way to get at all those people who do visa runs now torenew their visas. If the new multi country one visa system comes in then one wouild be forced to go to Malaysia for their visa run. As the obe visa system would mean that people would get one visa that covers Myanmar, Thai, Laos and Cambodia.

Then the Thai authorities could keep a much closer eye on visa renewals and maybe even make it harder to renew the visa through that channel. Just a thought.

[eric1000]

these projected figures are laughable, there are simply not enough flights and seats from europe to cope with the demand now !

you could double the daily flights from Heathrow to Bangkok and fill the seats right now.

and then prices and taxes on flights are escalating all the time thus making other destinations look tempting and Thailand looking pricy.

maybe they could build on numbers from asia .

[NedKelly]

Yes thailand is seeking out more Asian visitors as well as European. Road entry ppoints are being upgraded all over the place with the aim to access the huge markets of China and India. There are apparent plans to build a new bridge over the Mekong into Laos to access the Northern Regions of Laos. There ahs been talk of opening up Mae Sot and upgrading the road to Yangon and on to bangladesh/india. It may just be possible to increase the numbers but inreality I dont think it is feasible. There ahs to be another reason. maybe they were looking for more positive economice news to boost some stocks and shares !! Just a thought.

[peteypie]

Just imagine, one small bomb placed by some lunatic extremist group, and all these dreams of wealth and world status would vanish overnight. Remember Bali, Yes! That 'former' tourist hot spot.

[huski]

Just imagine, one small bomb placed by some lunatic extremist group, and all these dreams of wealth and world status would vanish overnight. Remember Bali, Yes! That 'former' tourist hot spot.

that psycho hanabali had plans for thailand but you know there are just too many thai bar girls with sixth sense for anything to happen here.