PM Prayut wants quality tourists to visit Thailand

[laobali]

Everyone wants quality....on both sides.

Quality security and fair play will bring the quality tourist.

The first step must be taken.

Then Khao San Road could be renamed Quality Street?

[SOTIRIOS]

...considering tourism built this country......

.....where does this misplaced judgement and prejudice fit in.....???

[JohnThailandJohn]

I think he was thinking more along the lines of ones who don't rob, assault, swindle, rape or in one way or another prey upon tourists.

Then he should get our more as the overwhelming vast majority of Thais, just like most places, don't fit into this category. If you read news here like you have never read news before then I can see how one might ignorantly believe the incidents talked about in the news are representative of a significant portion of the population --- instead of understand things generally make the news because they are not common.

But suggest those looking for a clean, law abiding society then they go to Singapore. Kind of shocking that folks go to a less developed country and expect first world standards. It is like thinking that there should be cheap red-light districts and poor enough women who are willing to be with men three times their age and five times their body weight but that everything else should be just like home ... just not a realistic view.

Equally so it was wrong to assume that tourists who are not wealthy come here just looking for drink and sex.

Sometimes people end up in less high end accommodation because that is what they can afford. They still have the right to a holiday and should not be barred on the grounds of wealth.

Agree -- was kind of the point I was trying to make ... easy to generalize and stereotype.

[Ricardo]

A quality tourist is clearly one who has purchased a 'Thailand Elite' Card !

The PM should realise that Thailand is, and has been for many years, a backpacker/down-market tourist-destination, and that there is nothing wrong with that !

[Oziex1]

Just thinking about Koh Tao was this place promoted in an underground way as a drug centre where you could get anything you want. Yeah? Hmm a quality destination.

So assuming young fun loving people who would like to sample Koh Taos wares, are not considered quality tourists. This will have significant financial impact on the knobs on the hill, I can hear them calling the PM now.

Not that this quality tourist stuff is going to be rolled out any time soon or ever for that matter.

[RTH10260]

Entry denied, quality status not approved.

The first time they do this & it gets reported in international press, arrivals will drop by 30%

Will travel agents around the world start advising their clients to arrive here looking ' quality ' so wear designer clothes, have designer luggage and confirmed accommodation in an up market hotel / resort ?

Next part of the conversation will be possibly be about alternative destinations.

tsk tsk tsk Those quality tourists are expected to shop for those quality labels in Thailands own stores and surplus outlets, not already bring the stuff along....

[JohnThailandJohn]

How about quality for tourist walking,...who are continually endangered by being forced into moving traffic because of motor bikes and vehicles parked on sidewalks. Thailand does not even have a PEDESTRIAN ENDANGERMENT FINE.

This is actually something they are addressing and is a big complaint I have too. Just so difficult to go for a walk in the city without having to go to a park.

Have you been down Sukhumvit lately? They had all the shops rip up the steps and stoops they built in front of their shops that encroached into the public walkway. They also have enforced restrictions on when the vendors can sell. Day time walking now is so much better.

It is a start but they need to also need to do this on the other roads, especially the smaller Sois were you can literally see that most building owners have just built right out onto where the walkway was.

They also have cleaned up beaches and forced out those illegal structures on the public beach.

I don't want things to be perfect and organized as Thailand would lose it;s charm but I do think there is a compromise. Walking on Sukhumvit in the daytime is completely different than in the evening and then also completely different in the late / early morning hours.

I see a lot of good the current government is doing, I just hope they don't go to far but then again they still have a lot to do to find the right balance.

A bigger or more specific issue I have is motorbikes on the sidewalk. I'd also like to see a public awareness campaign that people should walk to the left (same as cars) ... these things I don't believe add the Thai charm ... cheap and smokey food stands you sometimes have to walk around, while frustrating would not want to see them go away.

Edited October 15, 2014 by JohnThailandJohn

[empireboy]

Let's get some quality democracy underway first please!

[Elmer Gantry]

I have just read that TAT has been recruited to run an advertising campaign to attract quality tourists to Ting " Tongland " complete with free promotional T shirt.

The slogan is to be Tongs Ya Bass.I can see it as a raging success as there are many similarities between Tongland and Pattaya.

[Oziex1]

Let's face it if you have travelled a bit, all tourist spots have criminals running the show, some more that others.

Call some place paradise. kiss it goodbye.

[Fat Haggis]

Why are so many old timers out of touch with reality and constantly post derivative comments about backpackers?

My son and his girlfriend were on a backpacking holiday in Thailand and neither are drug taking soap dodgers!!! That goes to all their friends who backpack here too. Many Backpackers prefer the ambience of being in a large group, and not sitting in their 4-4 star hotels drinking gin and tonics looking down their noses at people!!!!!!!

What's wrong? You forget what fun is these days?

You think that it's just backpackers that take drugs too?? Oh how naive of you too, plenty of "quality" professional tourists partake in a little bit of " Charlie " when in Thailand, why? Because they can.

Just because your lives are miserable an less than satisfying lay off the kids who backpack all over the world, who don't get drugged and pissed up and are afraid to use soap!!!

[toonsai]

What means quality? Like Pattaya? Yes you are right Supreme Good PM General, your latest declarations clearly demonstrate that you care for tourists and their safety, that you effectively fight against incompetence and corruption. Make sure that everywhere in Thailand tourists are warmly welcome like in Pattaya, then you will reach your target of quality. You are such a role model for us all, protecting business before all.

Quality Thailand for quality tourists.

Edited October 15, 2014 by toonsai

[Boxclever]

He could start by shutting down Pattaya and deporting all the residents tourists

[Loles]

They deserved well the Russky Q. tourist invasion.

[AGareth2]

Thailand isn't just about Pattaya and it's ilk

[AlQaholic]

So if Bill Gates arrives at Swampy with a bacpack and sandals, he is automatically rejected because he is not a quality tourist?

[klauskunkel]

PM Prayut wants quality tourists to visit Thailand

That's a line out of Yingluck's playbook, don't go there my man.

If you want quality, you have to provide quality first: Safety and security, service culture, clean and appealing environments - they all need a major quality boost. But, you can pour all the money in the world trying to improve these issues and achieve exactly nothing when government officials and police overseeing the process are corrupt. Inactive posts just don't cut it, savvy?

[natway09]

Please do not tell me that they have woken up after all these years.

TAT, listen one more time, Bulk Tourism does not work in the long term. It is only a quick fix.

Notice they are saying that arrivals down by 10%. I reckon from areas outside Asia down 25% or more.

They are just filling the gap with Chinese, Indian etc style tour groups who do not spend any money here,

(hell, they even pack their own food), low bulk room rates, low cost offshore airlines, (bums in the bed theory) & are 7/11's best customers

all of which puts intolerable strain on infrastructure for minimal return.I do not see one resort city or town with an efficient

sewerage treatment plant even.

Good chance even their tour payments are repatriated. Again TAT, Long term absolute waste of effort.

Get some long term strategies in place for bringing in quality tourism & forget about achieving any magical, hypothetical,

numbers game.

[Boxclever]

Oh I see what he's trying to say..."if we had better quality tourists then the Koh Toa murders would never have happened"! :-O

[laolover88]

Simple really

Every entrant to LOS is required, at immigration, to open a bank account, with a 'tourist' debit card, and deposit

50,000 Baht per 14 day stay. No cash withdrawals are allowed. All purchases must be made on the card. Then it will beclear the money was spent in 'quality' establishments, not noodle stalls and belles de nuit. If, on departure, the bank account is still in credit-the money is forfeited. A variation on the old 'Myanmar' 'arrangement'.

[mehoo]

I think I might be a "quality tourist" on all the times I visit Thailand ( refer to my post yesterday in the Bangkok airport forum )

I don't hang out in any bars or gogo joints when I am there I most times have hired a car and I travel around to other places mostly in esan.

trouble is how the hell am I going to prove what I do and don't do when I get screened on my arrival at the end of this month. ?

I have never been to Cambodia or other nearby countries but maybe this is the time I consider broadening my horizons for alternative destinations.

THANK YOU MR GENERAL PM. you are making my decision easier by the day.

[patinseoul]

A quality tourist accepts their murder quietly and quickly and has no friends or family to question their so called "suicide"

A quality tourist pays their fees quietly to police or government officials and then shuts up about it.

A quality tourist notices the scams and graft and corruption around him but says nothing about it.

A quality tourist accepts the lies of thai officials without question, just like the "good" thais do.

A quality tourist pays even though they know they are getting screwed.

The ultimate quality tourist just stays home and bank transfers money directly to government officials including an estimated amount for airfare and lodgings.

[Strangebrew]

Fiji starting to look good now.

[smedly]

I must admit I am shocked at the PM's response to the UK which is exactly what the OP is - the undertone is obvious - going from talking about quality tourist to the mentioning of murders on Thai resort islands back packers and the UK, it doesn't really matter about the words in between or their intention - remove the froth and you will see exactly what is being said

It's almost saying that Thailand is not responsible for these types of tourists who display themselves and act in a manner that he deems inappropriate in a public place and the UK should vet these people before allowing them to travel (so it's their fault)

A good tourist is like the Chinese that run around in a tour bus which parks outside a shopping centre or a tourist attraction they all pile in - spend loads and get back on the bus - quality tourist

If Thailand wants its tourism industry to flourish then they need to be very careful about the message they are giving

If they had been investing even 10% of the proceeds they got from tourism over the last 30 years back into infrastructure administration safety and quality resorts then a natural evolution would have occurred, but instead they squandered the proceeds - stuffed their pockets and it now is what it is - a (deleted)

These undertones are not helping Thailand at all

[Strangebrew]

In reference to back packers I seen them puking out if front of bars grabbing waitress's butts And picking up the local ladyboys.

[masuk]

Everyone wants quality....on both sides.

Quality security and fair play will bring the quality tourist.

The first step must be taken.

Ridiculous. Quality tourists do not stay away due to any security issue.

They stay away because there are better destinations for quality tourists to visit. Countries that are less commercially developed, have cleaner beaches, have cleaner city sidewalks, have less touts, offer safe activities for their children, offer more activities like golfing and sport-fishing, etc..

And less of a reputation as ground zero for sexual exploitation.

Thailand's tourism future is going to be Chinese (who are not bothered by heavy pollution) and Russian (who are bothered by neither pollution or corruption) and 20-something backpackers ( who are too drugged up to be bothered about much anything--even the need to use soap).

Cheers

Are you sure there's Russian tourists still coming here? There seem to be a good few places in the south with close to zero bookings from Putin's lot.

[TheCruncher]

In another news today>

Tourists to Thailand demand a quality Thai government.

[harryfrompattaya]

Judging by recent arrival of new blathering stumble bum drunks in Jomtien, I'd have to say they have quality. Low quality, but hey, that's a quality....

You are right two low quality now come high. We need high quality maybe a test given at the airports are needed. Also make sure they carrying at 5,000 US dollars per person

[harryfrompattaya]

Maybe a variation on what Bhutan already does? Limit numbers. Institute daily visa fees of around $300, with a two week minimum stay.

That is great idea I am for it. Bhutan gets the best tourist I was lucky to have time their.

Edited October 15, 2014 by harryfrompattaya

[godden]

General confusion!!!