They wouldn't know a hi-end tourist if they had their hands in the same KFC bucket!

Unless of course they mean Chinese hi-rollers in which case they'll have to change the gambling laws.

The truth of the matter is that in the last 20 years in their rush to pack as many tourists in per square inch as opossible they have repeatedly gone for the lowest common denominator......and ae now world-reknown as the cheap and cheerful (or sleazy) end of the S.E. Asian market.

comments like that from the PM seem to me to indicate she doesn't know her "A" from a hole in the ground.

High end tourists have a world a choice. Thailand has some great resorts which would appeal to these. I have at times indulged in these world class resorts. But getting to theses resorts involve hazardous road trips, over crowded unseaworthy boats, hot humid waits in unpleasent surroundings and mafia mentality transport agents. The simple fact is that you have to deal with the reality of substandard service even if your destination is high end. Now compare that to a high end experience in other developed countries where quality and safety is uniformly applied. If you are high end, why would you opt for wading through muck and safety mine fields? Thailand is a low quality destination sprinkled some high quality pockets. It has a long way to go before it competes for high end tourists who don't need to put up with the low quality that is endemic throughout the country. I guess if I asked Yingluck to walk through my barn to enter my house she would find that perfectly normal.

Bottom line is that the appeal of Thailand is low cost. Tourists compromise luxury for price, but high end tourists have no need to compromise on the basis of price. Wake up Thailand, and understand where you fit into the global market.

"Hi-end" tourists don't stay in concrete one room condos, in rubbish infested resorts that are crammed in next to each other with 3rd rate service and tacky furnishings overlooking filthy beaches with polluted sea full of paper and other garbage.

how can they possibly ask for more money of their visitors when the product is gradually sliding into a cesspit?

If they want to attract bigger spenders, how about doing something about the appaling yachting scene here? Petty regulations and no mariners - hardly a boat in sight.....

Why would high end tourists want to go to a low end resort. Perhaps to get a 'bit of rough'?

Easy to say, show is number 1, I knew it was on the climax, you can't demand it like that without all ingredients prepared well in front.

The 'Problem' for Yingluck is that with the lower-end tourists too many people are making a reasonable living. Why would she want everybody to get his/ her share of the big pie? High-end tourists only stay in the properties owned by the wealthy just to make them even more wealthy. Yes, they create job opportunities, but the salaries are not that much better than assembly line workers.

If backpackers stay in a 200 - 300 baht local guesthouse it likely means that some local family is making a reasonable living. They won't get rich, but sure better than working for the rich in a 5-star resort.

This is precisely why Yingluck's statement is both timely and appropriate.

Am frankly very surprised by all the negative reactions here. Most tourism industries around the world would rather have fewer tourists who spend more, and anyone with knowledge of global tourism knows that mass tourism is a destructive force with all sorts of unpleasant environmental and social consequences. There are plenty of examples, and the Caribbean is a good place to start. Nobody wants to be another Jamaica, where all-inclusives suck up all the water and electricity, and the only way the locals can make money to rob the tourists or sell them drugs. If you have been to Negril or Montego Bay, you can feel the results - the vibes are terrible.

The bad guys are the big tour operators who want to max out with numbers, and who only care about quantity, not quality. That is why some political leadership as shown by Yingluck is essential. This is not a HiSo issue - this is about what is good for Thailand long term. It is called sustainable tourism development - and what is going on in Pattaya today with a sudden flood of low end mass tourists such as those described below is definitely no sustainable.

Whether or not the Thai travel industry listens and makes the necessary adjustments for a more upscale market is another story.

If Yingluck could convince her political allies to make foreign home ownership legal, for example, that would show this is more than just talk. Long term foreign residents with a stake in the future of the country are going to contribute far more to the local economy than hordes of mass tourists.

Actually, I do think the TAT minister is at least partly responsible, since he loves to flash numbers to show he is doing a good job. Riight now his policies are killing the fatted calf, as they say in the Caribbean, and driving would-be residents to seek other options.

Give Yingluck a break, and send how this plays out!

te name="EyesWideOpen" post="6229329" timestamp="1363944532"]Not sure this program is going well. Thailand seems to be floodedwith Chinese and Russians on budget tour packages, and then throw inthe Indians on top of that. Definitely would not make me want toopen a five star restaurant here.. :-)

What you say about having fewer tourists spending more money in high end resorts is fine except that in a country where so many rely on tourism for a living that will mean more money going into the pockets of fewer, wealthier locals instead of it being shared around a bit more.

In other words Yingluck's statement is good news if you own a large hotel or resort but not so good if you run a small family guesthouse.

LOL!..... just seen Onflipflops was thinking along the same lines. Great minds obviously do think alike.

Why does Malaysia with less than half of the population of Thailand have more tourists??

There is barely a stretch of immaculate pavement in the country, and the waste water systems in all the resorts are shocking. Throw in regular electricity problems, and wine at 10 times European prices, that is enough to put off the really high end tourist. The trick for Thailand is to make a true 5 start experience 30 percent cheaper than Europe. Haven't found it yet.

Try this one http://www.ratilannachiangmai.com/ 100 EUR a night on latestays.com, a real 5 star experience at a real bargain.

I keep trying to think of another one, but it terms of true world class resorts I can only really think of the Amanpuri. The Oriental isn't a resort though it is a great hotel [with a terrible lobby] but misses Kurt I think.

For a different but possibly "high-end" eco feel, then maybe Tongsai Bay in Samui.

But these still fall into the position of don't leave the grounds!

With the growth of the all inclusive resorts [for good or bad] some of which are very exclusive indeed, it does seem to me that "the product" here is left wanting. After all Jamaica, where parts of the island have spent time being virtually off-limits to any tourist, have a reasonably successful tourist industry based around this concept.

TAT. Tourist Authority of Thailand.

Tat, a British colloquial term for cheap and tasteless trinkets (Wiki dici)

How about an improvement of services before Thailand thinks of increasing high end tourists. I should think that wealthy tourists aren't interested in dealing with the neanderthals lurking in/outside Suvarnabhumi for a start.

Yes, you have a valid point, but you may be unaware of how some of the higher end tourists deal with BKK;

- They are flying in business or first so they have access to the faster checkin counters and express immigration line

- Quite often there is someone there to escort them through arrivals. (This service can be purchased or is complimentary with TG First.)

- The driver is waiting for them at arrivals and they are taken directly to their vehicle.

- The touts do not go anywhere near these people.

It is quite a different story at the mess of an airport called Phuket, aka The Chaosdrome.

I believe the comments are in respect to the deteriorating image of once desirable destinations such as Koh Samui and Phuket, with the ripoffs, gouging and widespread corruption that is damaging tourism. Many of koh samui's hotels are in need of a refurbishment and some of Phuket's hotels are an embarrassment. Issues such as a reliable electrical grid and water supply are reaching the crisis point. a tourist location cannot have the constant power disruptions that parts of Phuket have.

"If you have money please come to Thailand, if you are poor backpacker go to Laos"

Before asking any tourist to visit Thailand she should ask that those involved in the

hospitality learn how to provide proper and up to standard services.

For the most part Thai people and businesses have no concept of customer service

and customer loyalty.

Thai people see farang they just see $$$$ sings

The non stop reports in the news about scams, rip offs, shady dealings and

murders/suicides and rapes will not make any tourist come to this cesspool

YS you should clean your house before you invite guests. Then again with your

wealth I am sure you have never cleaned anything, but you sure can spend

Totally ridiculous - apart from all everyone else has said - why not expose Thai youngsters to more people who spend in a day what they will earn in a year- the more "high end" tourists that come the less money will end up in the hands of ordinary people in thailand

How about us expats who put money into the real local economy every day.

I'm sure the uneducated trillionaire PM is just comparing us with her own spending in other countries. Imagine, the nerve of us low-lifes spending ONLY USD1,000 a day when we should be spending hundreds and thousands of USD a day...

Being a politician has its quirks.

Quote: She also asked the TAT to introduce measures to extend tourists' length
of stay from five days to six days,.. ?????

I want to say that that makes real sense.......... eeerrrrr..........no, wait......

big brother pulling strings again to get his opinion heard

how about just a one way cash machine at the airport.. arrive.. insert bank card.. depart.. have a nice day na ka!

Am not a tourist here, but start to believe that I am now a Hi So expat, looking at price raises all around and the 'devaluation' of Euro, Dollar etc.

Cannot get some more Hi So in Thailand dear Yingluck, as this is not the way the nice tammadaThai people use to think.

Just follow the marketing 'rules'...remember from your education?

TAT. Tourist Authority of Thailand.

Tat, a British colloquial term for cheap and tasteless trinkets (Wiki dici)

I've always been partial to the "Tourism and Welcoming Authority of Thailand"...

"According to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, only 20 per cent of foreign tourists last year were from "high-end" markets. She urged the TAT to introduce measures to increase the proportion to 30 per cent."

No need for special measures. With the baht appreciated as much as 8-10%, the percentage might go up to 40%. But only because there number of tourists will go down by 50%. Problem solved

The most pitiful thing about her statement is that she does not realize she has insulted probably 95% of all tourist that come to Thailand. Clueless.

I always thought the old-fashioned Thai way of getting tourists to stay longer and spend more worked just fine...

Have the fake (or real) police meet them at the airport, pretend to arrest them on some false charge, take them away to some seedy nearby motel, and hold them for ransom there for days until they agree to pay "bail" in some amount of tens or hundreds of thousands of baht, depending on their perceived ability to pay.

It's worked before. No reason it can't work again. Plus it's very environmentally friendly, because the tourists don't litter or otherwise muck up the environment while being held incommunicado. After that, of course, back to the airport and kick them out of the country.

One thing is sure, Thailand is still a way better place to live/visit than some other neighboring countries

Good idea, maybe we will start getting less of the russian trash and more of intelligent people whom they managed to scare out for the last 5 years.

Why does Malaysia with less than half of the population of Thailand have more tourists??

It doesn't....

It's just Singaporeans crossing over regularly.

Why does Singaporians have more tourists than Malaysia--maybe it's Malays crossing over.

and Thailand ?? farangs visa runs----malays crossing--Lao--Burmese-Cambodians entering every day---Do You agree TAT ????

Would be better to encourage retirees with more incentives to reside in Thailand, that is where the money is.

I will probably reside here till I die, and my expenditure will be greater than any tourist on a two week holiday.

That is one of the most condescending statements about tourists i have ever hear a PM of any country say. If she is going to say this it should said in private to the TAT executives. Thinking like a hi-so and speaking like a hi-so.

Like Father - Like daughter. Taksin Shinawatra, son of a small movie house manager who probably did not enjoy the HiSo label, was the first idiot who told TAT to go for "more upmarket tourists". Mind you, at that time he was pushing his "Prestige" card, which in true Shinawatran Hokum - died a horrible death from bankruptcy. He couldn't give them away.

Now, Prestige is back and daughter Yingluck is singing Daddy's Song - again.