Riverside temples touted for World Heritage status

[Lite Beer]

Riverside temples touted for World Heritage status
Sucheera Pinijparakarn,
Suchat Sritama
The Nation

Kobkarn

BANGKOK: -- In a bid to rebrand Thailand's tourism sector, Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangul has decided to propose some temples along the Chao Phraya River to Unesco's World Heritage Committee and promote its World Heritage river cruise plan.

Speaking at a seminar in Phuket hosted by Siam Commercial Bank, Kobkarn said Thailand needed to rebrand its tourism industry to encourage repeat visits, and World Heritage river cruises were part of the plan for next year.

"Most tourists visit Wat Phra Kaew, but some temples along the Chao Phraya River are important as well, and the river is well known among foreign tourists," she said.

Next year, the ministry targets 29 million tourists, contributing Bt2.2 trillion in revenue, compared with this year's expectations of 25.5 million tourists and revenue of Bt1.8 trillion.

Kobkarn said her ministry would also focus on collecting accurate data on tourism, which will be useful for long-term planning.

Still, she said, the number of tourists was not as important as their quality, so the ministry wants to see people staying longer, as this would boost per capita spending. She noted that although the number of tourists in Phuket was increasing every year, spending per head had not increased much.

According to SCB's Economic Intelligence Centre, spending per head of travellers in Phuket averaged Bt33,346.

Phuket is the No 2 Thai destination of foreign tourists, after Bangkok.

Kobkarn said Thailand should think seriously about rebranding, as several countries are promoting their own tourism industries as key sectors for boosting their economies. And they are all trying to tap the huge China market.

"Chinese tourists have many levels, and the new trend that we found is the increase of independent Chinese travellers. This shows that Chinese travellers have enough quality to be worth tapping," she said.

She added that Thailand should try to lure more mid-to-high-end travellers as they have high purchasing power.

Kobkarn said the tourism sector needs an intelligence and information unit in order to provide in-depth, analytical data for operators as well as tourists, especially those from overseas.

"The Thai tourism sector is more developed than other countries in the region in terms of products and services, but our weakness is that there are too many sources of information and some cannot be trusted," she said.

The private sector has called on the government to provide real and trustworthy data because correct information can help operators run their businesses more efficiently.

The ministry, however, will take months to establish an information centre because it needs to compile data from many different sources.

National tourism organisations in many countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, have already developed a database and have made it widely available.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Riverside-temples-touted-for-World-Heritage-status-30248331.html

-- The Nation 2014-11-22

[thesetat2013]

"Chinese tourists have many levels, and the new trend that we found is the increase of independent Chinese travellers. This shows that Chinese travellers have enough quality to be worth tapping," she said.

Don't you just love how they categorize people? These are the quality tourists they must have been talking about...

According to SCB's Economic Intelligence Centre, spending per head of travellers in Phuket averaged Bt33,346.

Hell! I spend more than this here EVERY MONTH!

Edited November 22, 2014 by thesetat2013

[ratcatcher]

"Kobkarn said the tourism sector needs an intelligence and information unit in order to provide in-depth, analytical data for operators as well as tourists, especially those from overseas."

Indeed they do, especially TAT..

[Soutpeel]

That lady in the photo looks like she has sucked too many lemons

[gotte]

The high quality tourist she want is the same TAT said they wanted a couple of years ago( the once sitting and staying in their Bangkok hotel room spending their money to the hotel only) . This way the rich farmers in the North and South will not get richer!

[soalbundy]

That lady in the photo looks like she has sucked too many lemons

I was thinking, more like the grim reaper, she certainly wont be one of Thailand's attractions

[RustBucket]

I would be amazed if UNESCO are anything other than extremely pissed off for Thailand's public announcement that it plans to exploit the UNESCO World heritage accreditation for nothing more than what amounts to cheap profiteering from their endorsement.

Another stupid plan that will fizzle out to nothing.

Also their tourism figures are once again highly skewed.

No way will they hit 25 million this year, many on here including myself has seen a huge drop in tourist numbers. My last three trips to swampy have seen it empty by comparison to what it was before this year. Also my last few trips to Patts has seen a remarkeble decline there too.

Edited November 22, 2014 by RustBucket

[JoePai]

Boy does she need to lighten up !

[wabothai]

The way she looks in this picture probably is because she has been reading the TAT reaction posts on TV on a daily basis.

[catweazle]

Her face and facial expression scares the living shit out of me... Think the position of chief officer in command at the Bangkok Hilton would be more appropriate for her.

On the other hand, her face is the perfect logo for the typical Thai attitude towards foreign visitors and investors alike, which is: "Give us all your money, NOW ! And then f#cI< off a.s.a.p. !"

Edited November 22, 2014 by catweazle

[MisterTee]

Her face and facial expression scares the living shit out of me... Think the position of chief officer in command at the Bangkok Hilton would be more appropriate for her.

On the other hand, her face is the perfect logo for the typical Thai attitude towards foreign visitors and investors alike, which is: "Give us all your money, NOW ! And then f#cI< off a.s.a.p. !"

A perfect Thai Visa avatar photo to complement yours.

[pantareiyingluck]

UNESCO is the victim of their own success. Too rapid expansion. In a few years it will be over, like Tripadvisor and all those kind of 'objective' institutions. Too many objects, cities, areas have been chosen to be UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is just commercial sh.# nowadays. Not much cultural. Take Hoi An, Vietnam. Thanks to UNESCO so many resorts now along the shore that recently hundreds of meter of beach has been washed away. Outside Hoi An it is one big dump yard. Using UNESCO to drum up more tourists due to the screw up of the Post Yingluck era: how long did she need to invent this one? The only female in the junta cabinet.....

[rudolfvaselino]

Great plan. After shooting & damaging deliberately the Khmer Preah Vihear World Heritage, Unesco will be very eager to grant this self chosen government some rewards. And all visitors to Unesco sites get a bracelet with their name and details on it. If they fall of the stairs we can identify them quicker. No worries guys, this idea will be one way waste paper basket like the previous ones. My plan for this minister; buy Prozac and cheer up a bit.

[WhizBang]

This woman needs to just keep her mouth shut.

[Kaalle]

Nana Plaza could be a runner-up.

[arunsakda]

And demand a 250 baht Songthaew fare for a distance locals pay 20,

[englishoak]

Someone should tell her as the minister of Tourism for LOS she might want to practice the odd smile herself, mind you im not sure it'll make her any less scary looking.