Thai Cabinet declares 2015 Thai traditional tourism year

[webfact]

Cabinet declares 2015 Thai traditional tourism year



BANGKOK: -- The cabinet yesterday marked 2015 as the Thai traditional tourism year in a latest bid to promote cultural tourism to the country and make Thai culture known worldwide.

A special committee to facilitate the campaign and four operation committees will be appointed to implement action plans.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports was designated to map out the details of each committee and areas of responsibilities.

The four operation committees will be in charge of products and services related to the Thai traditional tourism year, tourism promotion strategies in the country and foreign markets, as well as public relations.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, major targets comprise tourists from 37 countries in Asia, Oceania, Europe, America, the Middle East and Africa.

The Ministry also intends to attract specific groups of tourists, including wedding and honeymoon holiday makers, golf enthusiasts, eco-tourism travelers, and health and wellness tourists.

As for local tourists, the Ministry plans to create various activities to cater to different types of vacationers, be they youths, senior citizens, religious observers, or adventure lovers.

The campaign, aims at introducing foreign visitors new experiences through cultural and community tourism, will be placed in the national agenda.

More activities provided for foreign travelers will likely encourage them to stay longer from around 8-9 days to 10-11 days and plan their returns to the kingdom. More tourist arrivals will then generate more income for local community, Tourism and Sport Minister Kobkarn Wattanawarangkul said.

She said teenagers in the communities will be trained and hired as local tour guides for foreign tourists.

These students will earn extra income for showing visitors their villages and local attractions. Hiring them as local tour guides will make them appreciate their hometown more.

The campaign covers 12 not-to-be-missed destinations, such as Lampang, Phetchabun, Buri Ram, Chumphon, Ratchaburi and Trat provinces, in addition to 10 major cities like Bangkok, Pattaya, Ayutthaya, Phuket, Krabi, Pang-nga, Chiang Mai, and Hat Yai.

Phu Tub Berk, the highest peak of Phetchabun province, is among the 12 not-to-be-missed destinations. The area features large grass hill covered will flowers. Wat Phra Thart Pha Kaew, one of the most beautiful and sacred Buddhist monastery is also nearby.

The unique aspects of the campaign has drawn a lot of attentions at the London’s World Travel Market (WTM) 2014 and received quite positive feedbacks from international participants, she said.

It is aimed at generating higher revenue for the nation from 1.9 trillion baht this year to 2.2 trillion baht in 2015, she added.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/cabinet-declares-2015-thai-traditional-tourism-year/


-- Thai PBS 2014-11-13

[Somtamnication]

Yep! They're desperate!

[DLock]

One only has to type in "Thailand" into Google and look at the images to see how Thailand is viewed and what other people take pictures of when they travel here. It's not that hard.

She doesn't have to look to far, or even deviate much from past campaigns - beaches, sun, islands, long tails, snorkeling, nightlife, temples, shopping, markets, animals, trekking etc etc.

Thailand is visually stunning. She's trying too hard and trying to do too many things for too many people. Focus.

But one only hopes she is sitting down with the other agencies and telling them to sort out the scams, ripoffs, policing, rubbish, infrastructure and everything else that undermines a great holiday in Thailand.

...and please, no more Press Releases.

[NongKhaiKid]

Yep! They're desperate!

Thai traditional tourism ?

Is the cabinet endorsing sex tourism, scams, double / triple pricing and all the other little things that are commonplace but hidden or denied and never sorted out ?

[jonclark]

Yep! They're desperate!

Thai traditional tourism ?

Is the cabinet endorsing sex tourism, scams, double / triple pricing and all the other little things that are commonplace but hidden or denied and never sorted out ?

Hang on I though the latest promotion was 'martial law tourism' which was rolled out a few weeks ago.

What is traditional tourism?

[SABloke]

Traditional Thai tourism: Load ALL the family in the pickup, bring the speakers, bring the booze, park at the beach, get wasted, crank the volume, have a few verbal altercations(optional), get more wasted and then leave. Remember to leave said beach in a worse condition than when you arrived(not optional). I live at the beach...if you're upcountry, replace beach with waterfall, river, lake etc.

[AGareth2]

Traditional Thai tourism: Load ALL the family in the pickup, bring the speakers, bring the booze, park at the beach, get wasted, crank the volume, have a few verbal altercations(optional), get more wasted and then leave. Remember to leave said beach in a worse condition than when you arrived(not optional). I live at the beach...if you're upcountry, replace beach with waterfall, river, lake etc.

don't you just love it

great time for all

[ToddinChonburi]

REALLY !!!! what is Thai culture ? Thai women screw married men, Thai men screw every women but there wife's, Thai women are now screwing every man but there husband, Thai women want Farangs to support them and there Thai children, Farang pays Dowry to Thai family to marry Thai women with Thai mans children, Thai women suckers money out of Farang and sends to her Thai boy friend,

Feel free to add to the list. I did not even go into corruption.

[jpeg]

Hang on I though the latest promotion was 'martial law tourism' which was rolled out a few weeks ago.

What is traditional tourism?

Well, it kinda fits in with martial law tourism insofar as the General having made his wish that Thailand return to the golden days of feudalism, does it not

[tbthailand]

as a practical note, a 2015 tourism plan being formed in mid-november 2014 is a little bit late.

[Misterwhisper]

"Traditional Thai tourism"? You mean like leaving every single place you visit with your extended family covered in trash?

[Dogmatix]

Ha ha ha. Declare it what you like but, if they don't want to come, they ain't gonna come.

[bendejo]

Maybe they plan to tell all the Thais that they will have to wear traditional clothing and trade in their pickup trucks for elephants in order to put on a display for the tourists.

[jacky54]

Traditional tourists will not be wearing bikinis and will not be at risk of being robbed, raped and having their faces smashed in with a hoe. This is all about safety

[Commerce]

"She said teenagers in the communities will be trained and hired as local tour guides for foreign tourists.

These students will earn extra income for showing visitors their villages and local attractions. Hiring them as local tour guides will make them appreciate their hometown more."

Good idea. Let them realise they can earn 2,000 a night.......... parents will be queuing in their thousands to get their daughters onto this scheme, especially villagers.... they no longer need to send their girls to BKK! They can work from home... with little tax or bar charges

Time to invest in rural double mattress supplies.

"The area features large grass hill covered will flowers." - Do they really think in the West that we don't have such? Apologies - rhetorical question.

More crass proposals from people at the supposed top who are supposedly qualified to do the job.... it gets preposterously worse with each new day!

[Commerce]

One only has to type in "Thailand" into Google and look at the images to see how Thailand is viewed and what other people take pictures of when they travel here. It's not that hard.

She doesn't have to look to far, or even deviate much from past campaigns - beaches, sun, islands, long tails, snorkeling, nightlife, temples, shopping, markets, animals, trekking etc etc.

Thailand is visually stunning. She's trying too hard and trying to do too many things for too many people. Focus.

But one only hopes she is sitting down with the other agencies and telling them to sort out the scams, ripoffs, policing, rubbish, infrastructure and everything else that undermines a great holiday in Thailand.

...and please, no more Press Releases.

I'd go as far to say that Thailand 15 years or even 10 years ago WAS visually stunning. Now it's a shit hole, and needs a ruddy good clean up... and I'm talking physically, not in any other sense which we all know needs cleaning up

[marcusd]

Traditional THAI tourism people... you have all lost the plot me thinks. TRADITIONAL - not what we experience living here! get with the program!

Now if we look back to the 12 century we can see in history Chines Junks and ships coming into trade and taking away THAI women to assist the comforts on board. Then we had South Sea traders visiting Phuket. Then in the recent era we had US seamen depositing similar named substances at Pattaya. And ah now the present

Silom, Sukhumvit, Pattaya, Patong and the list goes on. SEX TOURISM is obviously the TRADITIONAL Thai tourism.

[Thailand]

Not so many golf tourists this year so far,certainly in the north.

So the courses have compensated by raising the prices for tourists and locals!

[Bluespunk]

"She said teenagers in the communities will be trained and hired as local tour guides for foreign tourists."

The problem is that if you want to promote Thai Tradition, teenagers are probably not the best group to do this.

They are not as useful a resource for this as the older generations.

Plus are the teenagers multi-lingual? Will they be able to speak in the languages of the tourists they are guiding?

Finally, teenagers, they do tend to have other things on their minds. Traditionally anyway, not sure they are always the sort of traditional behaviour this campaign is thinking about though.

[benw10]

day 1, how to carve fruit into a flower

day 2, the human zoo, trip to inhumane retention camps of the hmong to buy trinkets

day 3, drugged tiger day

day4, idiot in a bath of snakes

day5, pay the idiot for a bag of bananas to feed the elephant or the elephant gets it.

day 6, poured concrete ancient temple

day7.....oh forget it, beach, leo, larb , mango sticky rice.

[Jim walker]

honeymoon holiday makers as long as you don’t pack your bikini with you or go near the beach with it on or it will be your own fault should you get raped by a gang of Thai youths as its well-known they hunt in packs just another wonderful part of Thainess but don’t worry as they might take a selfi with you and could end up getting caught and a hefty 500Bt fine.

[Lupatria]

Yep! They're desperate!

Thai traditional tourism ?

Is the cabinet endorsing sex tourism, scams, double / triple pricing and all the other little things that are commonplace but hidden or denied and never sorted out ?

Hang on I though the latest promotion was 'martial law tourism' which was rolled out a few weeks ago.

What is traditional tourism?

Cheating tourists!

[RigPig]

Maybe they will cap the age of bar girls to 26 and introduce pole dancing at high schools.

But seriously how will they get the teen age guidesoff their smart phones long enough.......

[Smurkster]

"She said teenagers in the communities will be trained and hired as local tour guides for foreign tourists."

The problem is that if you want to promote Thai Tradition, teenagers are probably not the best group to do this.

They are not as useful a resource for this as the older generations.

Plus are the teenagers multi-lingual? Will they be able to speak in the languages of the tourists they are guiding?

Finally, teenagers, they do tend to have other things on their minds. Traditionally anyway, not sure they are always the sort of traditional behaviour this campaign is thinking about though.

+1

all of these were my thoughts exactly..they can't be serious if they think hiring teenagers to be trained to be tour guides is a good idea. I don't know if they thought this idea would elicit "oh so nice of them, they are helping out less fortunate people in their developing of tourism" but that certainly isn't the case...as you said, how many Thai teenagers actually have bilingual skills and how many actually care to learn...Also, most Thai teenagers I have met, could care less about something of historical/cultural meaning, they probably are unaware of half of these things they are going to be showing even existing...this is a TERRIBLE idea in so many way, it just shows that thinking like this is going to get this industry nowhere, I mean its laughable, thats what i did I just laughed

[Smurkster]

REALLY !!!! what is Thai culture ? Thai women screw married men, Thai men screw every women but there wife's, Thai women are now screwing every man but there husband, Thai women want Farangs to support them and there Thai children, Farang pays Dowry to Thai family to marry Thai women with Thai mans children, Thai women suckers money out of Farang and sends to her Thai boy friend,

Feel free to add to the list. I did not even go into corruption.

I have a friend who refers to Thai culture an oxymoron.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Smurkster

[wabothai]

The real Thailand tourists love so much is gone. Why?

Only money counts. That is where TAT might want to look at iso of the sickening tourist figures and income.

[plachon]

Traditional Thai tourism: Load ALL the family in the pickup, bring the speakers, bring the booze, park at the beach, get wasted, crank the volume, have a few verbal altercations(optional), get more wasted and then leave. Remember to leave said beach in a worse condition than when you arrived(not optional). I live at the beach...if you're upcountry, replace beach with waterfall, river, lake etc.

You forgot to emphasise the obligatory step of leaving all your trash in exactly the place you consumed it (bottles, plastic bags, plastic plates, cutlery, waste food, tissues, etc, etc), imagining the Thai beauty spot waste fairy will magically clean it up for you after one's departure. Or maybe some of the groups I've seen do exactly this don't even rationalise that much, just not giving a flying <deleted> what happens after they desert it in situ?

[Mosha]

Declare all you want. The world has it's own opinions.

[inutil]

One only has to type in "Thailand" into Google and look at the images to see how Thailand is viewed and what other people take pictures of when they travel here. It's not that hard.

She doesn't have to look to far, or even deviate much from past campaigns - beaches, sun, islands, long tails, snorkeling, nightlife, temples, shopping, markets, animals, trekking etc etc.

Thailand is visually stunning. She's trying too hard and trying to do too many things for too many people. Focus.

But one only hopes she is sitting down with the other agencies and telling them to sort out the scams, ripoffs, policing, rubbish, infrastructure and everything else that undermines a great holiday in Thailand.

...and please, no more Press Releases.

Its the oddest thing!

I did exactly that and for the most part it was beaches some elephants, a temple or ten and about 5-10% cute girls.

Thats not the odd thing... heres the odd thing.

I did the same for Japan, almost the same results. Something iconic for about 15 results then a few more deviations.

But type in any of the big European countries and the first 10 to 20 results are all maps and flags. Its bizarre.

[taony]

I'm sold. I need to go see that grass hill with flowers on it. I'm going to start planning now.....