Tourism Thriving Despite Floods: Thailand

[IsaanUSA]

"They include historical sites, mosques, temples, and communities."

Ohyeah!! Now the Mosques ARE an attraction?!

I assume they are talking about Malay tourists in the south. Right????????? (I really have no idea, just trying to play devil's advocate)

[ginjag]

Yes, continue to believe ANYTHING the tourism department, TAT, AOT, or any other government related tourism dept. says, at your own peril. They get the fax every morning from the administration, and the newspapers prints the articles, word for word. ZERO investigation is being done. The falsehoods are being perpetrated, and only the most naive amongst us, believe them. Ask any hotel, restaurant operator, travel agent, or other tourist related professional what the reality is on the ground. Business is way, way down. Sure this is high season in the north, and in the south, and it is busy. But, compared to a "normal" year? Not even close.

Spot on mate

I agree, I for one are sick of reading their reports...............Call them YO-YO.....up one minute down the next, what a load of Bulls#itting farts. sack the bleeding lot of them-they are not worth a WINK..555 Ha Ha, who the hell pays these monkeys ???? they are contradicting Shi#ehawks--all I do is shake my head at every published remark. I wouldn't believe them even if they quoted correct figures --and spoke the truth (people turn off or laugh after a time).......amazing-and unbelievable.

[nicky1982]

Looking at TAT & AOT these days what has Thailand got to offer apart from going to the Buddha temples or tothe beaches. We also have a few floating markets oh and elephant rides too you can do this all now and not having to travel so fair away from home plus if you look at cost of things these days it isn't cheap to go away plus the marketing is a joke here they have been saying the same old thing for the last eight years while I have been here they need to focus on the new generation of people and not the old customs of Thailand it's a joke if you ask me plus on top of this you have all the scams happening to ..

Try something like this TAT & AOT new generation try and get it throw ur thick skull ..

Edited December 14, 2011 by nicky1982

[cbc]

Went to BKK from chiang mai last week.Most people on the plane were asian and when i went to baggage pickup i thought i was at the wrong baggage belt.Only about 50 or 60 people their.Also most of the people in the airport were asian.Stayed in bkk for four day's and night's not many tourists at all.I know and speak with quite a few of the vendor's on sukhumvit and they were complaining about lack of tourists and no sales.By eleven pm everybody was packing up their stalls.Also,many hotel's offering cut rates and discount's for staying one night (yes,discount for staying one night ).The hotel i always stay at has cut the hour's for the staff and they now are getting two day's off instead of the normal one off day.Also,their are still rooms filled with thais that are there because of the flood.If tourism is way up or increasing where are they?I know many restaurant/bar owners in chiang mai and they say their business is down by 25%.Something wrong somewhere with TAT figures i would say .

[queanbeyan]

With so many people relying on tourism and accurate information for their business one would expect the TAT would be providing quality predictions based on some real underlying trends data. It must be very hard for tour operators, hotel managers and other tourist agencies to believe the TAT if they are as way off the mark as the forum suggests. My opinion is that most small operators have no source of alternative information apart from what they see on the streets or their actual vacancy rates - makes you wonder if Thai's pay any attention to the TAT. I wonder if any of the hotel operators could do the Thai thing and sue the TAT for provision of inaccurate information?? But maybe there are two versions of the truth though - similar to the dual pricing signs outside tourist destinations - one in Thai with the truth and one in english with the 'massaged' version?

[Scully]

I don't believe a word TAT says however I travel back to the UK for a few months a year, and stopped over in Abu dhabi on my return. I would say 20% were from the East and the rest middle East.

I know it's holiday season for many but a cheap flight from Abu Dhabi and two weeks ago I got 1/2 price on the rack rate at a hotel up North. We are also forgetting Koreans,Chinese,Japanese etc.

They have little distance to travel and hotels are crying out for business so prices are cheap. Just because they are Asian doesn't mean they are not tourists.

[spidermike007]

Looking at TAT & AOT these days what has Thailand got to offer apart from going to the Buddha temples or tothe beaches. We also have a few floating markets oh and elephant rides too you can do this all now and not having to travel so fair away from home plus if you look at cost of things these days it isn't cheap to go away plus the marketing is a joke here they have been saying the same old thing for the last eight years while I have been here they need to focus on the new generation of people and not the old customs of Thailand it's a joke if you ask me plus on top of this you have all the scams happening to ..

Try something like this TAT & AOT new generation try and get it throw ur thick skull ..

In my opinion Thailand has a lot to offer. But, there needs to be something done to address all of the issues, and problems, and scams. And the TAT, and AOT are completely incompetent. Since Thailand has a crony system and no semblance of a meritocracy, it is very difficult for the government to find competent people,. When you assign a guy like Chumpol, to the post of tourism minister, you are surrendering the fight. Here is his background: He worked as a civil servant and political science lecturer at the Thammasat University, before he entered politics in 1979. A member of the conservative-populist Thai Nation Party, he represented Suphan Buri Province in parliament. In the following years he held different high-rank government positions. In 1986 and 1992, he was Vice President of the House of Representatives. From 1997 to 1998 he was Minister of Education in Chuan Leekpai's cabinet. As he was no member of the Thai Nation Party's executive board, he was, unlike his brother, not banned from political activity by the Constitutional Court's ruling of 2 December 2008. So he could, as his brother's proxy, become leader of the Chartthaipattana Party, which is the de facto successor of the dissolved Thai Nation Party. After his grouping broke the coalition with the People's Power Party and joined the Democrat-led government, Chumpol became Minister of Tourism and Sports under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Is this a guy who is qualified to lead the tourism sector? As long as Thailand continues to appoint such fools, little progress will be made. I have heard so many people say how difficult it was to get info on thailand during the floods. I have a couple of years experience in PR, and I could have gotten that info out. It was not a difficult, or complicated thing to do. All it took was initiative, and effort. All of which was beyond Chumpol. He is a goon and a goombah.

[Ricardo]

"They include historical sites, mosques, temples, and communities."

Ohyeah!! Now the Mosques ARE an attraction?!

I assume they are talking about Malay tourists in the south. Right????????? (I really have no idea, just trying to play devil's advocate)

Funnily enough, the last time I was up in Mae-Salong, there was a group of Moslems from Malaysia, who had come to visit their Chinese-Moslem co-religionists here in Thailand, I got chatting to a couple of them.

There are indeed many more reasons for visiting Thailand, than just the shopping in Bangkok & the joys of Pattaya, it's a varied old world !

[chooka]

Just flew in on Thai Airways yesterday from Melbourne, the plane was virtually empty plenty of spare seats to stretch out and lay down. It appeared that most on the plane were Indian so I am not sure if they were headed for Thailand itself or just catching a connecting flight in BKK. It is the holiday season now in Australia and I was expecting a packed plane. If tourism is thriving then they are not comming from Australia.

[IsaanUSA]

Just flew in on Thai Airways yesterday from Melbourne, the plane was virtually empty plenty of spare seats to stretch out and lay down. It appeared that most on the plane were Indian so I am not sure if they were headed for Thailand itself or just catching a connecting flight in BKK. It is the holiday season now in Australia and I was expecting a packed plane. If tourism is thriving then they are not comming from Australia.

Most likely connecting. I flew one of those Thai airways flights before. India -> BKK -> Japan -> USA. I asked the guy sitting next to me where he came from when I boarded in BKK, and he said that BKK was just a connection on his long journey to the US.