TOURISM
Experts pinpoint tourism setbacks
SUCHAT SRITAMA
THE NATION


A Thai Airways plane is about to land at Suvarnabhumi International airport as it passes a huge billboard on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, 08 September 2014. Thailands tourism income has dropped by some 9.1 percent in the first half of 2014

BANGKOK: -- Experts with long experience in the tourism industry have outlined two major problems that have been holding back the sector for many years and need to be reformed for long-term competitiveness.

The first problem is that data and statistics provided by official bodies is inaccurate, and the second is that political power over the tourism sector is too centralised.

"These are the biggest problems for the Thai tourism industry and have been hurting the entire sector for decades. As a result, the industry is now facing the risk of collapse and losing its strength," one senior expert said.

These two big issues were raised in response to the appointment of a new tourism minister, Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul.

Members of this high-profile group claim 30-50 years of experience in the industry, some in the Tourism Authority of Thailand, as well as major hotel players and representatives of key travel firms and private-sector associations.

According to Apichart Sankary, former president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), certain authorities have forced organisations to provide unrealistic data, especially on international arrival numbers, or often provide only optimistic information to public.

He claimed that some information given out by officials was inaccurate. One mistake is counting one-day cross-border trippers as tourists. Moreover, arrivals are not categorised clearly, such as whether they are for business, leisure, long stays and so on, but are counted as one category, "tourist".

For instance, the official number of international arrivals between January and August this year was 15 million, down from 17 million in the same period last year, or a 10-per-cent drop. But ATTA's statistics showed that arrivals during those eight months plunged by 40 per cent year on year.

"Officials are claiming high numbers of tourist just for budgetary reasons," he said.

One hotelier, who declined to be named, said the tourism industry had been dominated by a single political party for about 12-15 years. He strongly advised the government to reform the travel sector by cleaning up inaccurate statistics and data and providing real information to the public as well as business operators.

ML SuravutThongthaem, senior vice president for development and owner relations for Southeast Asia at Onyx Hospitality Group, urged the government to enhance human-resource development and also consider issuing some regulations to preserve local management in order to strengthen long-term competitiveness.

Crackdowns urged

Crackdowns on illegal hotels, apartments and residences should also be carried out ahead of the opening of the Asean Economic Community next year.

Furthermore, improvements in infrastructure and connectivity are needed as soon as possible, while tourist security is another issue to consider. "Those who are going invest overseas should have full support from the government," he added.

Kobkarn on Monday assured her team and the private sector that her ministry would continue working to increase arrivals and tourism revenue. She also will promote a transparent working system while reducing duplication of tasks in the ministry's departments.

The new minister plans to promote secondary tourist cities to help small and medium-sized businesses, promote tourism through social media and online channels, and make immigration procedures less time-consuming.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Experts-pinpoint-tourism-setbacks-30243433.html

-- The Nation 2014-09-17

Inaccurate data yes. TAT announcements often are hilarious only. But there's no mention of the frequent scams. Jetski operators, taxi drivers, gems sellers, beach chair morons, police looking for tee money and others. Those bad guys are small in numbers really, but they have an increasingly impact on the image of the land of smiles.

The many "suicides" by falling from balconies and the recent horrible murder of the two brittish youngsters on Koh Tao will cost the kingdom plenty in the longer run.

A huge and lasting cleanup is needed to revive tourism. If that is possible remains to be seen.

Just from pure and simple observation over the last 5 years alone, the visible number of tourists has dropped MASSIVELY. High season this year most hotels were operating at 30%.

Towns like Hua Hin are still virtually deserted.

Pattaya is seeing a decline in Russian tourists - but perhaps for other reasons - but this still adds to the overall depletion of numbers.

The recent southern island murder mystery is going to have a massive impact on a global perception of Thailand, alongside the fact that the country is still under military rule.

To the uneducated overseas tourist - Thailand is an increasingly less attractive destination.

Not even the wondrous Thai punani can overcome that I'm afraid.

I refuse to believe my heroes in the very efficient and totally transparent TAT would ever report inaccurate or misleading data and they would never do it deliberately, would they ?

Amazing that they are unable to point to the current reason for the huge decline in tourism and other sectors.

Should I wish to visit supposedly backward Cambodia, I can arrange my visa from my computer. Thai visas have to be processed at a consulate or embassy, usually require a processing delay of hours if not overnight, require cash payment, and the expiry clock starts ticking from the day of issue when travel might not occur until several weeks later. To compound that problem, multiple entry visas have a "use before" date which actually means "expires on".

I actually think the tourists are down by about 50% in real terms.

Let's see how long these expert will stay around. my bet is not long since the Thais rather hear lies that bad news

I don't think you need experts to see the problems in Thailand that

have resulted in the decline of tourists,it all starts when tourists

leave the airport,and goes down hill from there on.

regards Worgeordie

They also always counted the border runners as tourists... was at Mae Sai last weekend, there where no "tourists" !

Inaccurate data yes. TAT announcements often are hilarious only. But there's no mention of the frequent scams. Jetski operators, taxi drivers, gems sellers, beach chair morons, police looking for tee money and others. Those bad guys are small in numbers really, but they have an increasingly impact on the image of the land of smiles.

The many "suicides" by falling from balconies and the recent horrible murder of the two brittish youngsters on Koh Tao will cost the kingdom plenty in the longer run.

A huge and lasting cleanup is needed to revive tourism. If that is possible remains to be seen.

...and corruption at any level...and double pricing ...and...and...and...etc.

Just from pure and simple observation over the last 5 years alone, the visible number of tourists has dropped MASSIVELY. High season this year most hotels were operating at 30%.

Towns like Hua Hin are still virtually deserted.

Pattaya is seeing a decline in Russian tourists - but perhaps for other reasons - but this still adds to the overall depletion of numbers.

The recent southern island murder mystery is going to have a massive impact on a global perception of Thailand, alongside the fact that the country is still under military rule.

To the uneducated overseas tourist - Thailand is an increasingly less attractive destination.

Not even the wondrous Thai punani can overcome that I'm afraid.

On the contrary, it is not "uneducated tourists" that are the problem, they are indeed informed and well educated on what is happening in Thailand which is why numbers are falling.

I think the increasing feel of xenophobia and the perception that foreigners are not welcome is also having an impact,, maybe small impact but once the idea that Thai's hate foreigners gets out that is a very difficult thing to shake. If someone asked me today how Thai people treat foreigners I would tell the truth and it would not be good.

Just this week there was another news item claiming that foreign gangs are "plaguing" Thailand with criminal activity,, total nonsense in my opinion but when the economy is tough the locals will listen and take it to heart.

I firmly believe how the local people treat you is a major contributing factor into choosing your holiday destination, along with safety, price and weather. Right now Thailand has the weather but the other points are under attack.

I guess the only way this will change is if Thailand lose the arrogance and wake up,, they need tourists, they need people to come to Thailand and spend money as tourists as well as invest in business,, make this unattractive and you lose everything.

I hope they smell the coffee soon because I get the feeling the clock is ticking.

Illegal hotels and apartments?

Does he mean foreign own that take away from Thai owned run down holes?

When you google grand palace Bangkok...one of the top tourist attractions in the entire country what you get is story after story of the scams that take place there EVERY DAY for YEAR AFTER YEAR....The Trip Advisor HEADLINE is watch out for the scams. Why this is not cleaned up is beyond belief...not only is it a very high profile attraction it would seem to me that it would be considered very disrespectful to the monarchy....there are only a handful of the scammers and they operate in basically the same place day after day after day so I don't think it would take more than a day or two to identify the culprits and get rid of them.

Thai tourism authority certainly must KNOW about this grand palace closed but I take you to jewelry store scam but obviously they either are in on it, don't care, or simply don't see allowing tourists to be scammed at one of the country's most important attractions as a problem.

Maybe years ago before the internet not many people heard about it. Now you find almost daily postings along with you tube videos that are blasted all over the world and frequently in travel publications etc....all of which serves to make tourists wonder if they really want to go to Thailand.

I am hopeful that the new regime might actually get rid of the scammers, arrest whatever big cops/govt officials etc that allow this crap to go on day after day and send a clear message that PUBLIC scamming is no longer to be tolerated.

As we all know change comes quickly around here. Crackdowns are nearly instant.

Unfortunately change works both ways and the status quo is resumed just as soon as eyes are turned away (whether just out of boredom or because a suitable "donation" was agreed).

Some years back, an English girl was raped and murdered on Lamai Beach on New Years Eve. It made for big news in the UK.

2 days later, an english friend got a call from his mother - isn't that where you live, it looks absolutely beautiful. He said "yeah, if you don't mind being raped and murdered" to which his mother replied "I could be raped and murdered in my own home." (as related to me).

Millions of people who had never heard of koh Tao will now know of it and its attractions. Once the crime is solved and the hullaballoo dies down, tourism will actually increase IMHO.

'There's no such thing as bad publicity.' P T Barnum

I think this problem has many factors to it one is the world economy is starved for disposable income, reducing international travel secondly thailand needs to address scams and safety.

no shit Sherlock?

centralised power? how about the current political set up?

first of all clean up the face saving ego issues that tat and others in government positions have.

Then go out and survey real people, thais AND falangs, these people know whats going on, not these tossers behind the desk, they dont live in the real world, then you can get your answers on whats turning tourists away.

So it was just white lies after all TAT?

I'm always just amazed at how supposedly tourism is just 6% of GDP, yet these type of headlines dominate the news which seems to me shows that tourism is much larger than is being let on. I can't really recall most first world countries generating big headlines about their tourism numbers like Thailand.

Simplfy the VISA process and let the tourist bar areas open 24x7 if they wish. Your either for or against tourist money. In the meantime some negatives go with the 2 points I made. e.g. international criminal hide out may be Thailand. Bars open too long means labor problems and people way too drunk. Those are only examples but all can be managed with better 'serve and protect' people. The added revenue can be used for these people to make it a trust tourist location.

Whilst I think that every TV reader has believed for years that the tourism figures are inflated and hence inaccurate, I fail to see the correlation between this and the prospect of reduced competitiveness.

Is it because the fact that targets are routinely hit allows complacency to set in? I really have no idea.

Can anyone please explain this as the article certainly doesn't?

I actually like the Low Low season. And I enjoy snickering when I read the Thai sad stories as I immediately think of their concept of Karma.

Just saying.

Some years back, an English girl was raped and murdered on Lamai Beach on New Years Eve. It made for big news in the UK.

2 days later, an english friend got a call from his mother - isn't that where you live, it looks absolutely beautiful. He said "yeah, if you don't mind being raped and murdered" to which his mother replied "I could be raped and murdered in my own home." (as related to me).

Millions of people who had never heard of koh Tao will now know of it and its attractions. Once the crime is solved and the hullaballoo dies down, tourism will actually increase IMHO.

'There's no such thing as bad publicity.' P T Barnum

BS

All this B.S. and still Taxi Mafia...Jet Ski Mafia...BIB Mafia...Now we hear TAT has been lying about the numbers. Jail these bassssstards and have integrity for once.

I also think that a lot of neighbouring countries are now accessible compared to years before, so that is having an impact too. Many tourist who travel here are the adventerous type and with all the problems we see and know they simply go to neighbouring countries. It's the same types of beaches and sea, just less hassle.

Constant scamming turns people off.

I stopped recommending the place since the tourist mafia stalks every visitor, nonstop.

The word is out about Thailand.

These 2 problems have been here for years but still the industry grew. Dont pass the buck, take responsibility for your actions.

There has been an ongoing drop in western tourists over the past 5 years. Tourist numbers have been bolstered in recent years by increases in Indian, Chinese and Russian tourists. However even these nationalities have limits. The constant dramas here, political coups, mismanaged floods, troubles in the south, combined with a complete lack of planning and care for the environment, un-monitored growth in greed, over pricing and scams, have taken their toll. Now the recent highly confusing, mismanaged (and constantly changing) visa regulation debacle. 10 years ago Thailand was one of the only Asian countries people could easily visit. Not any more - now it has to complete with places like Cambodia, Philippines and to a lesser extent Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar. Time for the arrogance and hubris to be put aside and a responsible plan put in place. Not just knee jerk reactions such as banning all vendors on the beaches.