Tat Set To Attract High-Spending Tourists To Help Hit Tourism Revenue Target Of Thb2Tril In 2015

[Lite Beer]

TAT set to attract high-spending tourists to help hit tourism revenue target of THB2tril in 2015

BANGKOK, 15 July 2012 (NNT) – The Thai Tourism Authority has already strategized about how to achieve the ambitious tourism revenue target of 2 trillion baht within 3 years’ time.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said that, in order for Thailand to record tourism revenue target of 2 trillion baht by the year 2015, the TAT has to implement strategic policies that will attract 1.4 trillion baht from overseas tourists and 550 billion baht from local travelers.

In doing so, the TAT will be focusing on the development of popular tourism-related products for the market with high purchasing power, particularly Russia, China, South Korea and Australia.

Mr. Suraphon added that travel packages for niche markets, such as golfers, newly-weds and shoppers, will have to be emphasized alongside the maintenance of existing markets of Malaysia, Japan and the US.

The TAT Governor also stressed the need to elevate the quality of Thai tourist destinations to meet acceptable standards.

For local travelers, Mr. Suraphon said that the stimulus measures will aim at encouraging Thais to make more than 3 domestic trips in a year while various interesting activities will be organized all year round in every region of the country.

-- NNT 2012-07-15

[bangkokburning]

I play golf

I'm getting married - to a Thai!

We will travel to Ubon and Udon Thani (heading to Lao) before years end

2013 before May we will make a trip a month to the Andaman

Recd nothing but grief when applying for my visas in the US this year but hey -

Getting married in Thailand - Sisakhet (B65k)

Honeymoon - Singapore

<snip> Thailand

OH! ... HIGH SPENDING

Edited July 15, 2012 by metisdead

[Thai at Heart]

The TAT Governor also stressed the need to elevate the quality of Thai tourist destinations to meet acceptable standard

he surely didn't say this in exactly this way. It you were to really say this in this way, the only option realistically would be to bulldoze some of the biggest resorts in the country.

I was in pattaya the other day working in a waste water project. There are open storm drains flowing into the bay. Problem is that there are to o many and if they let them all go at once they run the risk of turning the bay putrid.

So they keep the water back and let it sit turning more and more black and putrid by the day.

where to put the waste Watter treatment plant? How to divert the water from the seafront area to wwt? Shut down beach road and dig up walking street for 6 months?

Thailand is so far down tge road to messing up the environment near the tourist areas, it is beyond repair. Money talks

[Yunla]

They need to do a lot of infrastructure and anti-corruption work, if they want to make Thailand this golden-ticket global magnet they are claiming it can be. Thailand was always popular because it is affordable and friendly. If prices rise nationally, violent crime rises and Government supporters are calling for civil war etc. Thailand has lost the bargain-price and peaceful relaxing aspects that made it popular. Buckets of blood and Mao speeches is a real downer for the average relaxation-seeker, as is police corruption with criminals walking free on all levels across society.

The red-light, binge-drinking and drugs that are mainstays of the sleazy resorts, were not actually the enticements that Thailand originally attracted tourists with. In the past, sightseeing, visiting temples and other magnificent Thai historic structures, traditional old-fashioned Thai customs, sunshine, relaxation and affordability were the main attractions for families and other non-sextourists. These attractions are compromised if there is violent street confrontations and calls for civil war, and also by rising prices and rising crime. PTP and TAT claiming they can get all this money is fair enough, but it would require a serious U-turn by the current PTP government, who have done absolutely nothing in their first year to battle the root-and-branch corruption and major infrastructure failures that would discourage many high-spending tourists.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Yunla

[Thai at Heart]

They need to do a lot of infrastructure and anti-corruption work, if they want to make Thailand this golden-ticket global magnet they are claiming it can be. Thailand was always popular because it is affordable and friendly. If prices rise nationally, violent crime rises and Government supporters are calling for civil war etc. Thailand has lost the bargain-price and peaceful relaxing aspects that made it popular. Buckets of blood and Mao speeches is a real downer for the average relaxation-seeker, as is police corruption with criminals walking free on all levels across society.

The red-light, binge-drinking and drugs that are mainstays of the sleazy resorts, were not actually the enticements that Thailand originally attracted tourists with. In the past, sightseeing, visiting temples and other magnificent Thai historic structures, traditional old-fashioned Thai customs, sunshine, relaxation and affordability were the main attractions for families and other non-sextourists. These attractions are compromised if there is violent street confrontations and calls for civil war, and also by rising prices and rising crime. PTP and TAT claiming they can get all this money is fair enough, but it would require a serious U-turn by the current PTP government, who have done absolutely nothing in their first year to battle the root-and-branch corruption and major infrastructure failures that would discourage many high-spending tourists.

Interesting idea that the sleaze and redlight stuff want the original offering to tourists?

This was songs long before any tourists around. I somehow doubt that during the tinges of the Vietnam war, to many people were thinking to themselves, let's go a temple is thailand.

A friend of none honeymooned inpattaya in the siambayshore in 1973. he siad it wad idylic, but the red light stuff was already there coz of the war. Although as though the us army invented bars where they went pick up girls.

[Buchholz]

BANGKOK, 15 July 2012 (NNT) – The Thai Tourism Authority has already strategized about how to achieve the ambitious tourism revenue target of 2 trillion baht within 3 years’ time.

Easy. Just follow earlier plan and they are half way there.

Thailand Elite Card, the brainchild of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is TPC's sole owner

the goal was to attract a million subscribers in five years for revenue of 1 trillion baht.

.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Buchholz

[Yunla]

Interesting idea that the sleaze and redlight stuff want the original offering to tourists?

This was songs long before any tourists around. I somehow doubt that during the tinges of the Vietnam war, to many people were thinking to themselves, let's go a temple is thailand.

A friend of none honeymooned inpattaya in the siambayshore in 1973. he siad it wad idylic, but the red light stuff was already there coz of the war. Although as though the us army invented bars where they went pick up girls.

Yes, every nation on Earth has prostitutes and always has had. My point is that the infernal vortexes that are todays main tourist resorts in Thailand , are nothing you can compare with the 1970s. Thailand is converging on a segregated society, of foreign resorts that are entirely removed from all aspects of Thailand, and cater to short-term visitors who want to live out excess-fantasies then go home. That is corrosive and harmful to everyone not least the tourists themselves. And it has no similarity to the 1970s hookers at all.

Surprised you mention Vietnam war. Obviously war affects tourism. I was talking about events today, this claim that Thailand can be a tourism juggernaut in future. I was pointing out that many people including myself, visited Thailand for the relaxation, affordability, and to visit the more old-fashioned traditional Thai areas and historic sites. This is also true of family-tourism which is often high-spending and generally the best-behaved tourist group.

I have never stayed in a tourist resort here in my over three decades visiting Thailand, and never will. I have passed through them, and read about the bodycount news stories emerging from them. The problem is that if Thailand focuses on the sextourist, substance-abuse holidays, and segregated foreign crime-pits as the future of tourism, Thailand is going to suffer. And if PTP don't invest in anti-corruption and infrastructure work, and drop the civil-war incitements, nobody except gangsters will want to holiday here.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Yunla

[bendejo]

...

I was in pattaya the other day working in a waste water project. There are open storm drains flowing into the bay. Problem is that there are to o many and if they let them all go at once they run the risk of turning the bay putrid.

...

Ever hear of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico? Popular tourist destination. Same thing there, sewage goes right into the sea at the bathing beach. The place wasn't developed for tourism, it was a small town that was discovered (by Liz Taylor) and grew into what it is now.

This sewage problem may have been remedied in recent years, dunno, haven't been there since the 1980s.

[Thai at Heart]

Interesting idea that the sleaze and redlight stuff want the original offering to tourists?

This was songs long before any tourists around. I somehow doubt that during the tinges of the Vietnam war, to many people were thinking to themselves, let's go a temple is thailand.

A friend of none honeymooned inpattaya in the siambayshore in 1973. he siad it wad idylic, but the red light stuff was already there coz of the war. Although as though the us army invented bars where they went pick up girls.

Yes, every nation on Earth has prostitutes and always has had. My point is that the infernal vortexes that are todays main tourist resorts in Thailand , are nothing you can compare with the 1970s. Thailand is converging on a segregated society, of foreign resorts that are entirely removed from all aspects of Thailand, and cater to short-term visitors who want to live out excess-fantasies then go home. That is corrosive and harmful to everyone not least the tourists themselves. And it has no similarity to the 1970s hookers at all.

Surprised you mention Vietnam war. Obviously war affects tourism. I was talking about events today, this claim that Thailand can be a tourism juggernaut in future. I was pointing out that many people including myself, visited Thailand for the relaxation, affordability, and to visit the more old-fashioned traditional Thai areas and historic sites. This is also true of family-tourism which is often high-spending and generally the best-behaved tourist group.

I have never stayed in a tourist resort here in my over three decades visiting Thailand, and never will. I have passed through them, and read about the bodycount news stories emerging from them. The problem is that if Thailand focuses on the sextourist, substance-abuse holidays, and segregated foreign crime-pits as the future of tourism, Thailand is going to suffer. And if PTP don't invest in anti-corruption and infrastructure work, and drop the civil-war incitements, nobody except gangsters will want to holiday here.

There was no tourism industry in Thailand before the 70s.

I agree with the frustration you feel about the resorts, but, i fast there is no going back, it isn't going to change. I despair that as the resorts grew, there wasn't any consideration at all for waste management. The environment around most if the coastal resorts is a complete mess and to repair it now costs in the billions.

TAT is trying to market a damaged collection of attractions and it is only going to get harder as the competition increases. They could h have created paradise in the islands and something more than passable on the mainland, mafia controls huge interests in the resorts.

With all due respect, thus isn't a singularly ptp issue, thIs is a Thailand issue. Billions has been taken out by owners of tourism businesses, but so little reinvested to protect the long term future if their tourism products. There appears to be little long term strategic thought to anything that goes on.

If you have the money, build whatever you like, wherever you like, toss the rubbish over the wall, and wonder why the crystal blue sea turns green 5 years later. Chaos rarely produces a good outcome.

I noticed the story somewhere yesterday of the naive new resort bring built blatantly inside protected land. How can this still go on, as though no one knew our bothered to notice. It us the way it is and once again money ordinarily wins.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Thai at Heart

[Yunla]

There was no tourism industry in Thailand before the 70s.

I agree with the frustration you feel about the resorts, but, i fast there is no going back, it isn't going to change. I despair that as the resorts grew, there wasn't any consideration at all for waste management. The environment around most if the coastal resorts is a complete mess and to repair it now costs in the billions.

TAT is trying to market a damaged collection of attractions and it is only going to get harder as the competition increases. They could h have created paradise in the islands and something more than passable on the mainland, mafia controls huge interests in the resorts.

With all due respect, thus isn't a singularly ptp issue, thIs is a Thailand issue. Billions has been taken out by owners of tourism businesses, but so little reinvested to protect the long term future if their tourism products. There appears to be little long term strategic thought to anything that goes on.

If you have the money, build whatever you like, wherever you like, toss the rubbish over the wall, and wonder why the crystal blue sea turns green 5 years later. Chaos rarely produces a good outcome.

I noticed the story somewhere yesterday of the naive new resort bring built blatantly inside protected land. How can this still go on, as though no one knew our bothered to notice. It us the way it is and once again money ordinarily wins.

Good post and I agree with most of it. There was backpacker hippy-trail tourism in Thailand in the 1970s, but not the actual money-spending organised tourism. My Mother, who was a single-mum back then, took me on hippy-trail in Thailand around 1971, I was very young and carried in a sling. She was backpacking, visiting monuments and learning about Buddhism. It was only for eight months and I don't remember it at all because I was very young. She said it was the happiest year of her life and that is what made me visit here when I became teenager and later.

I'm not really making it a PTP issue, but in truth Abhisit did invest in his 3-year infrastructure plan which would have benefitted all aspects of Thailand including tourism. Thailand has yet to have a leader or ruling party that has tackled the issues of infrastructure and corruption, both of which are crucial determinants in tourist destination decisions. My problem with PTP is that they have not even touched those subjects at all, and they are in power today, hence why I mention them a lot relating to news stories. They have failed in their first year, to even commence the reform work which is essential to tourist confidence and to tourist health & safety on holiday.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Yunla

[Thai at Heart]

There was no tourism industry in Thailand before the 70s.

I agree with the frustration you feel about the resorts, but, i fast there is no going back, it isn't going to change. I despair that as the resorts grew, there wasn't any consideration at all for waste management. The environment around most if the coastal resorts is a complete mess and to repair it now costs in the billions.

TAT is trying to market a damaged collection of attractions and it is only going to get harder as the competition increases. They could h have created paradise in the islands and something more than passable on the mainland, mafia controls huge interests in the resorts.

With all due respect, thus isn't a singularly ptp issue, thIs is a Thailand issue. Billions has been taken out by owners of tourism businesses, but so little reinvested to protect the long term future if their tourism products. There appears to be little long term strategic thought to anything that goes on.

If you have the money, build whatever you like, wherever you like, toss the rubbish over the wall, and wonder why the crystal blue sea turns green 5 years later. Chaos rarely produces a good outcome.

I noticed the story somewhere yesterday of the naive new resort bring built blatantly inside protected land. How can this still go on, as though no one knew our bothered to notice. It us the way it is and once again money ordinarily wins.

Good post and I agree with most of it. There was backpacker hippy-trail tourism in Thailand in the 1970s, but not the actual money-spending organised tourism. My Mother, who was a single-mum back then, took me on hippy-trail in Thailand around 1971, I was very young and carried in a sling. She was backpacking, visiting monuments and learning about Buddhism. It was only for eight months and I don't remember it at all because I was very young. She said it was the happiest year of her life and that is what made me visit here when I became teenager and later.

I'm not really making it a PTP issue, but in truth Abhisit did invest in his 3-year infrastructure plan which would have benefitted all aspects of Thailand including tourism. Thailand has yet to have a leader or ruling party that has tackled the issues of infrastructure and corruption, both of which are crucial determinants in tourist destination decisions. My problem with PTP is that they have not even touched those subjects at all, and they are in power today, hence why I mention them a lot relating to news stories. They have failed in their first year, to even commence the reform work which is essential to tourist confidence and to tourist health & safety on holiday.

The planning design and implementation, licensing, control and management of the resorts lies at the local level. It is corruption there that hobbles the development, not bangkok.

[phl]

They keep talking about high-spending tourists, yet i have not seen a plan on how they planning to do that.

Also looking around at the moment, it seems they achieved totally opposite and have attracted the cheapest charlies they could find

[anon2]

Thailand tourist areas is crap,crap,crap....

[Pseudolus]

When will they get the simple point that if they stop concentrating so much on extracting as much money as possible from people then people might actually spend more. When I am relaxed and having fun and not feeling harassed / extorted I don't pay too much attention to how much I am spending. When I feeling pressured to open my wallet, I get irritated and stop spending money.

Thailand - try to make people feel contented and happy and the money will follow. Keep going the way you are, and people will not return. Simple.

[E1717007]

" high-spending tourists" all heading to singapore ^__^

[Payboy]

At least they got the "high" part right.

[Thaddeus]

The most amazing thing about this article from TAT is that it didn't use the word hub once.

[madmitch]

Why does this story get regurgitated year after year after year.

For every Christiano Ronaldo there are thousands of low-cost package tourists and backpackers. This won't change. We'll read the same story and get the same comments on TV in three years time.

[siddv]

All of you newly weds come to beautiful Phi Phi where you can be poisoned to death, or to Chaing Mai where you can die a mysterious death in your hotel room or Phuket where you can be stabbed to death on the way back from your evening dinner. That should attract the high spenders...

Edited July 15, 2012 by siddv

[otherstuff1957]

I work part-time for an advertising/marketing company that does a lot of work for the TAT. There is a lot of pressure coming from above to increase tourist numbers and tourism related income!

The people who run the TAT are either unaware of the extent of the "naughty nightlife" (as they call it) or are unwilling to acknowledge its existence. Future growth in the tourism sector is supposed to come from shopping, dining, spas, medical tourism, etc... The targets for future growth are countries like China, Korea, Singapore, India and the Middle East. These countries are seen as having the most potential for economic growth and increased numbers of tourists.

[BigC]

i read this header line and pissedmyself laughing,

government are putting up prices. Cost of living is rising. Tourist cost of living is also rising with something live 12 % unemployed in the U.S greece and spain are in finacial crisis U.K and other places are pretty much reuined. SO how can they attract people to come here when most people are skint.

[damo]

What is the attraction in Thailand????

To quote james packer, a very clever business man on the subject of creating tourism.

JAMES PACKER: Tourism around the world, the successful tourism around the world, is about man-made attractions. The biggest tourist destination in America is New York. The second biggest, tied, is Orlando and Las Vegas. Las Vegas gets about 40 million people a year. I think maybe the greatest natural attraction in the world is the Grand Canyon. It's a half-hour drive from Las Vegas and gets about 3 million a year.

http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/8465830/packers-punt

Whats thailand got?

Edited July 15, 2012 by damo

[moe666]

All of you newly weds come to beautiful Phi Phi where you can be poisoned to death, or to Chaing Mai where you can die a mysterious death in your hotel room or Phuket where you can be stabbed to death on the way back from your evening dinner. That should attract the high spenders...

Not a newlywed but living in Chiang Mai for a couple of years now and not dead. They have been recycling this plan for years attracting highrollers.

[moe666]

i read this header line and pissedmyself laughing,

government are putting up prices. Cost of living is rising. Tourist cost of living is also rising with something live 12 % unemployed in the U.S greece and spain are in finacial crisis U.K and other places are pretty much reuined. SO how can they attract people to come here when most people are skint.

Chinese are doing fine at the moment and are the biggest tourist group to Thailand

[mrtoad]

The most amazing thing about this article from TAT is that it didn't use the word hub once.

I am sure there will be a follow up shortly. I am prettys sure I have seen a number of versions of this article over the last 8 years. TAT really are living in cuckoo land, if they want high end tourists, then they are going to have to provide high end services and offer clean, safe destinations. putting up the prices, doesn't mean that standards raise. Of course they'd also have to do some proper planning, in particular the way that tourist resorts are developed and policed. Not going to happen.mOn Koh Chang they have enough difficulty getting the dust cart to collect rubbish regularly.

[damo]

All of you newly weds come to beautiful Phi Phi where you can be poisoned to death, or to Chaing Mai where you can die a mysterious death in your hotel room or Phuket where you can be stabbed to death on the way back from your evening dinner. That should attract the high spenders...

Not a newlywed but living in Chiang Mai for a couple of years now and not dead. They have been recycling this plan for years attracting highrollers.

Chiang Mai is a classic example of the bigger picture. Take the annual flower festival that see's every hotel in town booked out with tight arse Thais that dont spend at the cost of spending foriegners who could'nt get a room any where and hence did'nt come.

Stupid.

Edited July 15, 2012 by damo

[rheinwiese]

This opinion piece was published in The Nation in 2001 !

11 years ago.

Deja vu all over.

Opinion

WELCOME TO THIGHLANDIA

The prime minister is touting tourism as a quick fix for the country’s staggering economy. The consequences are not a matter of prediction; the evidence is there for anyone who wants to look, writes Chang Noi (a pseudonym) in The Nation (30.4.01).

When the Thai economy hits trouble, the government turns to tourism. It happened in the last crisis in the early 1980s. With agriculture slumping and industry moribund, the economic planners seized on services. They sent on 200,000 Thai workers off to the Middle East and doubled tourist arrivals in five years.

As the prime minister [Thaksin Shinawatra] recently said, tourism is quick, cheap, and easy.

The ingredients are already there. Sun, sea, smiles, culture.

Some of these spare resources haven’t even been sold yet.

With better marketing, the returns will jump.

Twenty billion baht more from Chiang Mai.

Ten more from Phuket. Another twenty from everywhere else. All by this time next year.

Amid this enthusiasm, it’s difficult to detect words like “control” or “consequences”.

The consequences are not a matter of theory or prediction.

The evidence is there for anyone who wants to look.

Thailand’s main tourist product is the beach resort, with sun, sea, sand and the S-word, which the tourist planners seem so reluctant to talk about.

The development cycle is clear from the experience of 40 years.

Stage 1: Start with a place of outstanding beauty, which attracts people because it is drop-dead gorgeous. Impose absolutely no controls. Allow get-rich-quick entrepreneurs to encroach on the beach, blow up the rocks, scatter garbage and pour concrete everywhere.

Stage 2: The resort is now popular but rapidly losing its natural charm. Add large quantities of sex and comfort. Build large, luxurious hotels. Import lots of girls.

Stage 3: By now the natural beauty is totally obliterated. The seafront is an essay in bad architecture. The hinterland is a shantytown of beer bars. Develop the remains as a male fantasy theme park. Add anything with testosterone appeal – big motorbikes, shooting ranges, go-kart tracks, boxing rings, archery. Bring in more and more girls (and boys). There you have it: Thighlandia. Then stack it high and sell it cheap. You can travel round Thailand and see this development cycle in action.

Pattaya is long in stage 3. Phuket is hovering on the borderline between stage 2 and stage 3. The island has become a building site. Patong is spreading like a stain. Hua Hin is on the edge between stage 1 and stage 2. The architectural assault on the beauty of the beach-front is complete. Over the last year, Patong-ization has started, and the old fishing village is filling up with girls, bars and the trappings of Thighlandia.

Thailand’s second tourist product is the hill town offering a mixture of mountain scenery, old culture, and exotic people. This has also its development cycle.

The first visitors are attracted by nature and adventure. They climb the hills, paddle the rivers, visit the hill people and experience the temples. They generate little revenue, but they create a reputation.

At stage 2, as the numbers of visitors increase, the original appeal of nature and adventure is swamped. The temples are buried by high-rise hotels. The treks are too crowded to offer any fantasy of adventure. What’s left is buying things to take home.

At stage 3, the place is transformed into an exotic theme park with a huge specialty store. The hill people and other “natural” attractions are arranged like a zoo. The “traditional native products” are manufactured on industrial principles and sold through an ever-spreading flea market. Then add some of the bits of Thighlandia for good measure.

Thailand’s third tourist product is the festival. Mostly these have been marketed domestically. But in the last few years, the tourist authority has started turning these into export products.

Originally, Songkran was a subtle mix of two festivals found all over Asia. The first is an intimate rite of blessing by pouring water. The second is the world-turned-upside-down. For one day only, the hierarchy is upended, and social constraints are removed. Both these festivals have cultural meaning and social purpose. The rite of blessing brings people together. The day-of-misrule is an opportunity to release tensions and adjust hierarchies.

Songkran today has become a water fight. In essence, it’s a blown-up version of a paintball battle, a real world experience of a videogame splat fest. The underlying principle (as with battle simulations and arcade wars) is the exercise of violence, relieved of all its nasty consequences (blood and death). The rite of blessing has disappeared. The drama of misrule has been lost.

The current enthusiasm for tourism is more than Thaksin’s dream of a quick fix in a bad year, a yah bah [methamphetamine] pill for the economy. Last year, the World Bank produced a report on Thailand’s economic prospects after the crisis. Shorn of all the formal language, the report said: everything else is hopeless; turn Thailand into a theme park. The proposal now is to double tourist arrivals in a handful of years. That means another Pattaya, another Phuket, another battered “Rose of the North”, another “Splatkran”.

[Unkomoncents]

When will they get the simple point that if they stop concentrating so much on extracting as much money as possible from people then people might actually spend more. When I am relaxed and having fun and not feeling harassed / extorted I don't pay too much attention to how much I am spending. When I feeling pressured to open my wallet, I get irritated and stop spending money.

Thailand - try to make people feel contented and happy and the money will follow. Keep going the way you are, and people will not return. Simple.

I genuinely believe, that coupled with a localized concept of intelligence (whereby the smartest man/woman is the one who outfoxes the other out of money), that they have a seriously deluded understanding of the concept of quality in Thailand. You make a great point. They talk about attracting money without offering the slightest clue as to how they plan to draw the high-flying individuals that have earned that money (and, in all likelihood, have a fairly good, if recently acquired, understanding of value in the marketplace). In everything from condos to education to the airport, shortcuts are taken and quality control measures ignored. Until Thais understand the concept of value, they won't be able to do this. The only people in the Kingdom that you see driving Ferraris or Lamborghinis are Thais. No foreigner would invest more than a million USD for a vehicle that would only cost a fraction of that price in their home country. That's an extreme example, but anyone who cares about buying quality clothing, household utensils, or basically anything of reasonable craftsmanship has been lamenting the outrageous prices on foreign, "luxury" (in quotes because this basically just means foreign) products that result of extortionate tariffs. It wouldn't be a problem if the Thai side were able to offer products of even remotely comparable quality.

[bigbamboo]

You've gotta give TAT one thing, they aim high. If only they could be accurate too.

Targeting golfers ( not enough good courses that aren't blocked with sen yai most of the time). shoppers (who come here mainly for cheap fake goods not the real thing) and newly weds (who are looking for a realxed, unspoilt paradise, something which is harder and harder to find in Thailand) may help to bump up the numbers a bit but not the huge increases TAT is talking about.

[Beng]

All at the cost of human/animal rights and exploiting nature/ environment of course. Sorry TAT.

Get the infrasructure in order first, there might be another flooding round the corner-