TAT moves quickly to cash in on easing of Hong Kong's 'black' alert

[webfact]

TAT moves quickly to cash in on easing of Hong Kong's 'black' alert
PICHAYA CHANGSORN
THE NATION



The Tourism Authority of Thailand is embarking on an intensive marketing campaign to lure back tourists from Hong Kong, quickly exploiting the removal of the "black alert" travel warning issued by the Hong Kong Security Bureau earlier this month. The Nation's Pichaya Changsorn reports from Hong Kong.

BANGKOK: -- THE TOURISM Authority of Thailand is cheered by the decision of Hong Kong's security body to lower its travel alert from "black" to "amber" immediately after Thailand's Cabinet cancelled the Bangkok state of emergency on March 19. TAT Governor Thawatchai Arunyik said he was very confident that tourism arrivals from Hong Kong, which had been on a rise during the past few years, would quickly recover.

The Thai tourism boss was speaking at a media interview held during his visit to Hong Kong to conduct a roadshow for briefings and to help match up Thai and Hong Kong tourism-business operators.

TAT officials described the Hong Kong travel market as "come fast and go fast".

After massive anti-government protests by the People's Democratic Reform Committee started in Thailand last November, the Hong Kong Security Bureau placed a "red alert" on the Kingdom, which caused the number of Hongkongers visiting Thailand to shrink by 27 per cent in December.

That number continued to fall by 24 per cent in January and 64 per cent last month, as Thailand announced the state of emergency in its capital and the Security Bureau raised the travel warning for Bangkok to "black".

The "black" alert is the most severe because insurance companies will not cover travellers to affected areas, in this case Bangkok. The alert also affected travellers who wanted to visit nearby places such as Pattaya and Hua Hin, because they still had to land at Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is in the Greater Bangkok area.

Titiporn Manenate, director of TAT's Hong Kong office, said the authority expected Hongkongers to resume travel to Thailand quickly, because they usually don't require long lead time to make their travel decisions, thanks to Thailand being only two hours' flying time away.

Furthermore, Hong Kong tourism services are no less cheerful at seeing the "black alert" cancelled because Thailand is also an important market for them, typically contributing 20 per cent of their total incomes.

The TAT has set a target to maintain the number of Hong Kong visitors at last year's level, about 580,000 for holders of Hong Kong passports and 690,000 including other residents of the city. For the whole of 2013, the number of Hong Kong tourists visiting Thailand rose 23 per cent year on year to 581,871, thanks to the sharp rise of Hong Kong visitors before the start of Thailand's political turmoil late in the year.

Jecholiah Wong, product development executive at Farrington American Express Travel in Hong Kong, who attended the TAT roadshow, told The Nation he was quite positive on the TAT's recovery plan because airlines and hotels were also very aggressive in their campaigns to lure Hong Kong tourists back to the Kingdom.

"Actually Hong Kong travellers like Thailand very much. If the safety concern is off, I think there won't be a big problem," he said.

Mutakan Srithongsook, executive assistant manager of two resorts in Krabi, Red Ginger Chic and Pakasai Resort, said the TAT was on the right track with the travel products it had designed for Hongkongers. "Hong Kong travel agents are apparently showing much interest and immediately responding to sell Thai travel products."

He said a lack of direct flights from Hong Kong to Krabi had made it difficult to attract tourists from the city to the southern seaside province, nevertheless.

Srisuda Wanapinyosak, TAT's executive director for East Asia, said that as about 80 per cent of Hong Kong tourists were not first-time visitors to Thailand, the country needed to develop new travel products and services to keep them coming.

The new products the TAT is aiming at Hong Kong tourists include sport tourism such as Muay Thai and rock climbing; wedding and honeymoon packages; young-traveller products such as local design and cultural courses; "office lady" products such as fashion, health and beauty treatments; and eco-tourism.

To divert impacts from unfortunate events that may recur in Bangkok in the future, the TAT aims to put more emphasis on "destination branding" to create distinctive identities for other destinations outside the capital, in the same way as Indonesia has successfully branded Bali, she said.

At present, 80 per cent of Hong Kong tourists visiting Thailand come to Bangkok.


-- The Nation 2014-03-31

[NongKhaiKid]

Internal TAT Directive -

" It's a straw, quick clutch it ".

[hanno]

When TAT don't do anything, they get hammered. When they do something, they get hammered.....

[Local Drunk]

Ermmmmm... Marketed as, "come fast and go fast"

[noitom]

The Thais are eager to "lure" and cash in as usual. They are always luring and always eager to cash in.

[hanno]

The Thais are eager to "lure" and cash in as usual. They are always luring and always eager to cash in.

Unlike any other business in the world, you mean?

[CiaranO]

oh yes back to luring people again - a few weeks ago they were luring office ladies - wonder how that went

[Overcome]

Looks like a straightforward tit for tat to me.

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[JoeThePoster]

The new products the TAT is aiming at Hong Kong tourists include sport tourism such as Muay Thai and rock climbing; wedding and honeymoon packages; young-traveller products such as local design and cultural courses; "office lady" products such as fashion, health and beauty treatments; and eco-tourism.

How about educational tourism for students? Brush up on engineering knowledge via jet ski repairing crash courses, and complex mathematics by calculating taxi fares without using meter.

[Costas2008]

Looks like a straightforward tit for tat to me.

• Just In Former Miss Thailand World contestant files charge over 'nipple photo'
• British man’s “suicide” at Pattaya condominium
• TAT moves quickly to lure back Hong Kong tourists

Looks like titts to me.

[bangon04]

Ermmmmm... Marketed as, "come fast and go fast"

and don't forget to leave your money behind....

When the headline says "TAT moves quickly" does this imply that they are rushing and therefore maybe they are not thinking their strategy through so carefully and completely this time? Or is it just more of the same c**p they usually come out with?

[oldsailor35]

Now if they had the gumpton to ship that idiot Suthep off to Hong Kong for a permenant stay, maybe there would be a rush here to Thailand from HK just to get away from his crazy antics.

[ginjag]

Now if they had the gumpton to ship that idiot Suthep off to Hong Kong for a permenant stay, maybe there would be a rush here to Thailand from HK just to get away from his crazy antics.

Better idea give Hong Kong the Shins and PTP reds, and we take Hong Kong people in return. good for tourism. good for Thailand----bad for Hong Kong.

[Halion]

Endless crap from an inane organization.

[kevc]

Find it a bit sad that an amber alert = be careful where you go is still seen as a good thing.

Sent from my GT-P5100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Lupatria]

When TAT don't do anything, they get hammered. When they do something, they get hammered.....

They deserve it because of their constant lies, manipulated home made statistic and countless stupid ideas and proposals.

[MMarlow]

Ermmmmm... Marketed as, "come fast and go fast"

Read it again, that's not how it is being marketed.

[MMarlow]

The Thais are eager to "lure" and cash in as usual. They are always luring and always eager to cash in.

As is every tourism authority on the planet. You do know the meaning of the word "lure", don't you?

There's a new forum being started for people who hate Thailand, it's people and it's government and irrationally take every miniscule opportunity to have a dig at them. You should sign up as one of it's first members.

[ginjag]

80% of Hong Kong tourists visiting THAILAND come to BKK, 20% must land somewhere else. Those that come to BKK have no choice they are already here.

[ginjag]

The Thais are eager to "lure" and cash in as usual. They are always luring and always eager to cash in.

As is every tourism authority on the planet. You do know the meaning of the word "lure", don't you?

There's a new forum being started for people who hate Thailand, it's people and it's government and irrationally take every miniscule opportunity to have a dig at them. You should sign up as one of it's first members.

There is also one for the strays who love the government, you must have created it.

I hardly know a person that thinks TAT do a super job. Most if not near all think they are over paid-over staffed-short of brain- most of all they are not pushing the real problems of tourism.

They do NOT tackle the powers that be to rid Thailand of scams and corruption, dual pricing-unclean country/beaches in general and apart from air travel unsafe transport.

If they put their budget of 5 billion on these problems people will return---word of mouth is the best way to improve business figures.

[Local Drunk]

Ermmmmm... Marketed as, "come fast and go fast"

Read it again, that's not how it is being marketed.

Right... I'll edit just for you, "come fast"

[TheReporter]

Thailand used to be known as one of the best and most desirable tourist destination in SE Asia until all these political issues came to play. Thailand is heading towards a self-destruction mode by not for the political stalemate that the country is facing now, but the high level of deceitful acts or scams against foreigners and or tourists. Thailand is becoming like Nigeria, where almost every foreigner is targeted for some type of scams ranging from taxi fare to fraudulent vacation deals. This will not only hurt the tourism industy in the country, but also put a bad name to the people of Thailand. Thailand should take a good look at how horrible the whole world look at Nigeria for its fraudulent activities and learn from this mistake, if it wants to develope and prosper.

[oldthaihand99]

80% of Hong Kong tourists visiting THAILAND come to BKK, 20% must land somewhere else. Those that come to BKK have no choice they are already here.

Is it 80% who arrive by air at one of the two BKK airports? Many of whom may go directly from there to Pattaya or another location in Thailand.

Or is it 80% who enter Siam write on the entry card that their destination in LOS is BKK?

Or some other way of arriving at their figures?

[godden]

It's ok for TAT to keep boosting tourist numbers, but when are they going to do something for the tourist, load of ar*eholes

[phanangpete]

TAT has done a great job in luring the Russians here as well and they have settled in and been welcomed everywhere, have'nt they, i think other forums have covered this one well enough!

Now as for the Hongkong tourists coming thats pure greed again and thainess as we know it, i think 80 % of them stay in Bangkok because its safer.

Why would they travel on the buses , trains ,when there is a good chance of never making it to your destination, look at the stats, TAT don't.

Good luck to them as they continue to lure tourists to one of the most dangerous places on the planet, wrong eh ? look at the stats !

[phanangpete]

Thailand used to be known as one of the best and most desirable tourist destination in SE Asia until all these political issues came to play. Thailand is heading towards a self-destruction mode by not for the political stalemate that the country is facing now, but the high level of deceitful acts or scams against foreigners and or tourists. Thailand is becoming like Nigeria, where almost every foreigner is targeted for some type of scams ranging from taxi fare to fraudulent vacation deals. This will not only hurt the tourism industy in the country, but also put a bad name to the people of Thailand. Thailand should take a good look at how horrible the whole world look at Nigeria for its fraudulent activities and learn from this mistake, if it wants to develope and prosper.

Agreed entirely, i used to live in Pattaya and the jet ski scam was and still is serious, the thais do not warn tourists about the scams why........ yep its acceptable.

This is not thai bashing its the dam truth ! So for any of you fireside OP's get out of your armchair and go see for yourselves, its only one of many that the authorities cannot or will not stop.

What about the fullmoon party, they won't stop that or again cannot, 20 odd yr olds die every month, most other civilised nations would do something, ah no , not here. money !

Did you know like Pattaya COP, his counterpart down hear paid about 6 mil for the post, any ideas why .

The list goes on .

[Thai at Heart]

Please stop LURING passengers, and just work on attracting them. I keep having images of a female stick insect eating her partner when they use that word.

[brit1984]

Many Hong Kong tourists visit Bangkok regularly for shopping, eating and spa (=spending), but they had to cancel / postpone recent trips due to issues over travel insurance.

TAT may do some silly things sometimes but getting the Hongkongers to re-book their holidays and get back to Bangkok ASAP is a smart move.

[piersbeckett]

Endless crap from an inane organization.

Jesus wept!

[DLP]

Black alert. THATS RACIST