Les Norton Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Jesus, I would have thought that Thailand would take anyone they could get. I would imagine a first time visitor to Thailand would read this article and get a little offended and choose another destination. Why tf does Thailand believe that they deserve high end tourists when they clearly treat visitors like cattle?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlQaholic Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) Interesting statistics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings. France and USA is far more popular tourist destinations than Thailand. Even Russia and China are more popular than Thailand and they forgot one important category of tourist......: "Generally there are four genres of tourists: ordinary tourists; intelligent travellers (including eco-tourists); cultured travellers; and meetings, incentives, conventions, and events (MICE) visitors. Individuals in the first category are the least attractive. Thailand should strive to increase numbers in the latter three categories. Fortunately, Thailand has impressive and extensive MICE facilities." Edited January 19, 2015 by AlQaholic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berybert Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Just how many different tourist departments does Thailand have ? They really need to talk to each other. Reading one day that tourist numbers are down by 6% last year at the same time they had a 64% increase in visitor numbers doesn't quite ad up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timber Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 An important topic. The government and Ministry of Education need to get together and decide if this is a priority. I have taught in Bangkok and about 30% of the students thought it was, but the other 70% who didn't held me back from teaching the good students. Common sense says why study that hard you can't fail. In the rural areas the kids are smart and keen in elementary then they go to another school where the other kids are so far ahead of them they give up trying to learn English very quickly. Many elementary schools don't care. The kids in grade three don't know colors and pronouns. My new kittens know colors. They aren't being taught. I think the tourists from China, Japan, Russia, India, and Southeast Asia are more important than those coming form English speaking countries, but should the guide learn those languages or learn English. A lot of those people will know basic English, and their is a better chance the guide can communicate with them using English. Impossible to know all the other languages. Learning English isn't easy, but the Thai education system makes it a lot harder. Do a better job when the kids are young, and spend some time communicating with the parents and the rest will follow. If Thailand doesn't they will all go to Myanmar anyhow. All they have to learn is what side of the road to drive on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stopthegreed Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "One key skill related to tourism is language ability. Based on visitors coming to Thailand, a key priority should go to the study of Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean." Thailand can not speak English and you want them to do what ? the Thais need to get their act together, they have been inside this very comfortable bubble for a long time, where they dont see the need to learn English. Add to that the fact that they are lazy, and you have a huge problem. Maybe they will wake up when this Asean thing kicks in, and all The Malaysian and Filipinos, who have good English skills, come and take all the jobs?? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masuk Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Europeans have been teaching English to Thais in schools for a long time , if the teaching methods were up to standard , why are there no Thai nationals teaching English instead of the Europeans ? This is not a dig , just a question. Maybe Thailand's Education experts need a trip over the border to Burma, and find out why so many Burmese speak English. There are a good few here, working in restaurants, and it's a pleasure speaking to them. I know that Burma is an Ex-British colony, but it's obvious that many years on, and they're continuing to learn English. They're doing something that Thailand isn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerdT Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Gerald W. Fry is a Distinguished International Professor at the University of Minnesota and a specialist on education and development in Southeast Asia. He is a former Pew Fellow in International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and an editor of the Historical Dictionary of Thailand. Here are two links to articles he wrote and they make sense to me - compared to some of the comments I encountered regarding the article on language skills. http://hir.harvard.edu/archives/author/gfry http://hir.harvard.edu/archives/5755 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisY1 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 This article makes false claims. New York City alone well exceeds 50 million tourists per year dwarfing Thailand's 16 million. How could Time Magazine state that Bangkok was "the most visited city n the world?" The majority of Thailand's tourists are sex trade primaries. This is a dark never discussed secret of Thailand. Without sex trade, Thailand would be nowhere on the tourist map. I think you're completely wrong. The majority of tourists are from China, Korea, Russia, Japan and other non-western nations and while it may apply to some Japanese, the majority are certainly not here for sex. If anything the number of sex tourists is declining rapidly as younger and younger westerners holiday in Thailand, and the places like Nana, Cowboy and Pattaya are full of expats! Why does the article report that 59% of tourists are male?.......you think they come here to stand in temples?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurkster Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) Good luck with this prospect, they can't even learn English (read are too lazy or arrogant to try) how do you expect em to learn other languages. 2015 is going to be a major wake up calls to Thais and they do lose jobs to as someone said Filipinos and Malaysians who have better skills....som nom freaking Na Edited January 19, 2015 by Smurkster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenchair Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "One key skill related to tourism is language ability. Based on visitors coming to Thailand, a key priority should go to the study of Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean." Thailand can not speak English and you want them to do what ? Had to laugh. Asean Philippines, Brunei,Malaysia, Burma, Singapore there's five that all communicate fluently in English. Vietnamese is only 1 and Russia. Though Chinese is definitely a plus. Basically, if they can't speak English, they are certainly in for some competition to get the good paying jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawker9000 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Generally there are four genres of tourists: ordinary tourists; intelligent travellers (including eco-tourists); cultured travellers; and meetings, incentives, conventions, and events (MICE) visitors. Individuals in the first category are the least attractive. Thailand should strive to increase numbers in the latter three categories. Fortunately, Thailand has impressive and extensive MICE facilities. Unfortunately, Thailand has nothing to attract intelligent, cultural or MICE tourists other than a reputation which, quite frankly, is one of sleaze. Thailand needs to clean up their country both literally and figuratively if they truly want to compete long term for the tourist buck. What I expect is plenty of rhetoric and, as usual, no substance. Of course you would know more than the professor. Try checking the amount of conferences that are held in Thailand. And, not all the participants are here for the sleaze either. Well, OK there Mr. Wizard. Tell us please. How many conferences were held in Thailand in 2014, with how many foreign attendees, and what portion of the total tourist volume did those attendees actually represent? Also, if you please, comparable figures for the years prior so we can judge growth, if any. 'With attribution, of course. 'Looking forward to your informed response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DP25 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 This article makes false claims. New York City alone well exceeds 50 million tourists per year dwarfing Thailand's 16 million. How could Time Magazine state that Bangkok was "the most visited city n the world?" The majority of Thailand's tourists are sex trade primaries. This is a dark never discussed secret of Thailand. Without sex trade, Thailand would be nowhere on the tourist map. I think you're completely wrong. The majority of tourists are from China, Korea, Russia, Japan and other non-western nations and while it may apply to some Japanese, the majority are certainly not here for sex. If anything the number of sex tourists is declining rapidly as younger and younger westerners holiday in Thailand, and the places like Nana, Cowboy and Pattaya are full of expats! Why does the article report that 59% of tourists are male?.......you think they come here to stand in temples?? 59% of tourists being male is normal, there are more male than female tourists in most countries, especially in 'exotic' locations. That is a lower percentage of male tourists than most countries in Asia. Thailand has far more female tourists than China, India, or any other country in South East Asia. Korea is the onyl exception in Asia, as because of the popularity of Kpop they get huge numbers of female Asian tourists. Sex tourists are a small minority these days. It's amazing how the sextourists/sexpats here bemoan tourism is dieing, when they look around at their favorite hangouts and everything is half empty. But if you go to 'normal' tourist places they are overflowing with tourists from all over the world that have no interest in dodgy farang hooker bars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emster23 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "While the tourist industry is labour-intensive, it unfortunately is generally not skill-intensive" That is woefully true here, but try visiting some other countries..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetsetBkk Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Gerald W Fry Distinguished International Professor College of Education and Human Development University of Minnesota gwf [at] umn.edu Just wondering if His Distinguishedness has ever been to Thailand Several times: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/olpd/people/faculty/fry.asp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mramazing Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "From June to November 2014, a period of political stability, tourist visitors to Thailand increased 64 per cent." Might be true if they compare with 1975. The other day we heard about a decline in tourism by 15-20% for the same period. Amazing Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurkster Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script> "From June to November 2014, a period of political stability, tourist visitors to Thailand increased 64 per cent." Might be true if they compare with 1975. The other day we heard about a decline in tourism by 15-20% for the same period. Amazing Thailand. Amazing Thailand, that one is always a knee slapper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
55Jay Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Interesting statistics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings. France and USA is far more popular tourist destinations than Thailand. Even Russia and China are more popular than Thailand and they forgot one important category of tourist......: "Generally there are four genres of tourists: ordinary tourists; intelligent travellers (including eco-tourists); cultured travellers; and meetings, incentives, conventions, and events (MICE) visitors. Individuals in the first category are the least attractive. Thailand should strive to increase numbers in the latter three categories. Fortunately, Thailand has impressive and extensive MICE facilities." Not forgotton, they are disguised rather cleverly within the MICE category. At the better known Centres of Excellence in BKK and Patts, there are plenty of them engaging in Meetings where both parties provide Incentives resulting in a Convention for certain Events (and/or Exhibitions) to take place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy chef 1 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Based on visitors coming to Thailand, a key priority should go to the study of Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean. It is important for Thailand to have adequate numbers with good communicative competence in these languages currently spoken by the largest numbers of tourists coming to Thailand. English is a second language to these nationalities. Having just returned from vacation to Koh Chang I observed that most hotel staff could communicate to these nationalities using English. The elephant tour people spoke English, the boat tour operators spoke English, the restaurant staff spoke English and had the menu in English and Russian, the kayak rental man spoke English, the local policeman spoke English and the national park ranger spoke English. English is the international language used by more people internationally than any other language, the language of the ASEAN community is English. English is the obvious language of choice for tourism in Thailand. Learn English conversation and the tourist industry will bloom. at least something the Brits can be proud of.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thian Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "One key skill related to tourism is language ability. Based on visitors coming to Thailand, a key priority should go to the study of Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean." Thailand can not speak English and you want them to do what ? the Thais need to get their act together, they have been inside this very comfortable bubble for a long time, where they dont see the need to learn English. Add to that the fact that they are lazy, and you have a huge problem. Maybe they will wake up when this Asean thing kicks in, and all The Malaysian and Filipinos, who have good English skills, come and take all the jobs?? Thailand is working very hard on their englitt skills! I heard english lessons on the radio yesterday...They taught the word "consumer goods" (pronounced by a thai) and another word... The lesson took about 30 seconds and my wife told me they will do new lessons every day! vely good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidee Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 what do tourism business produce? do they produce food ? do they manufacture ? they provide some service that rents you overprices hotelrooms, overpriced food and still good for 1 trillion baht or more with the euro at 37 baht, how many tourists still think this is good value for money ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Alwyn Posted January 19, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2015 This article makes false claims. New York City alone well exceeds 50 million tourists per year dwarfing Thailand's 16 million. How could Time Magazine state that Bangkok was "the most visited city n the world?" The majority of Thailand's tourists are sex trade primaries. This is a dark never discussed secret of Thailand. Without sex trade, Thailand would be nowhere on the tourist map. Paris too with 33 million tourists each year 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alwyn Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Quote "Generally there are four genres of tourists: ordinary tourists; intelligent travellers (including eco-tourists); cultured travellers; and meetings, incentives, conventions, and events (MICE) visitors." Sorry this is nonsense and the first are the least desired? I guess they mean packaged holidays etc for the first genre? They are saying that only dimwitted people come into this group then and an intelligent person or a "cultures" person would never take these holidays? This has to be the tourist industry's bread & butter surely? Oh, they forgot sex tourists Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangon04 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "Many falsely claim that tourism is the world's largest industry. It is not, but it is the world's largest service sector industry" Really? Isn't the largest service industry Prostitution by a long way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamburgler Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 I think we can all agree that the distinguished international professor(DIP) is correct. Thai's should focus on improving foreign language skills.... and math, reading, writing, science, etc. The question is who is going to teach them? I have a Thai friend whose niece graduated from CMU with a degree in English. The average 6 year old Cambodian begger has a larger vocabulary and a greater command of syntax than this college grad. If one of Thailand's better Universities can't teach a student to speak basic English in four years I don't see much chance of a surge in foreign language skills such as Chinese(Mandrin, Cantonese, Hakka?) . Mr. DIP seems to be impressed by the "current educational reform efforts" focusing on " good character, etiquette, thoughtfulness, respect, and politeness/being courteous" which "has nothing to do with years of formal schooling." Perhaps the DIP should focus on his native language skills which is key to writing a coherent article . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawatdeekhap123 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 This article makes false claims. New York City alone well exceeds 50 million tourists per year dwarfing Thailand's 16 million. How could Time Magazine state that Bangkok was "the most visited city n the world?" The majority of Thailand's tourists are sex trade primaries. This is a dark never discussed secret of Thailand. Without sex trade, Thailand would be nowhere on the tourist map. Yes and yes. And by the most basic of statistical probability ... the average tourist who reads this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamburgler Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script> This article makes false claims. New York City alone well exceeds 50 million tourists per year dwarfing Thailand's 16 million. How could Time Magazine state that Bangkok was "the most visited city n the world?" The majority of Thailand's tourists are sex trade primaries. This is a dark never discussed secret of Thailand. Without sex trade, Thailand would be nowhere on the tourist map. I'm not sure the claim is entirely false, however, this is a very poorly written article. BKK does rank highly in the number of international tourists, this is due to the fact that most intl visitors arrive via Bangkok. The US on the other hand has a multitude of cities where intl visitors arrive. Overall, a very incoherent article. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamburgler Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Generally there are four genres of tourists: ordinary tourists; intelligent travellers (including eco-tourists); cultured travellers; and meetings, incentives, conventions, and events (MICE) visitors. Individuals in the first category are the least attractive. Thailand should strive to increase numbers in the latter three categories. I have some suggestions to achieve these goals. Tours to the markets selling ivory and endangered species for eco-tourists The cultured travelers get a free Rohinga to bring home with them. Who doesn't want to take a little culture home? The MICE folks can attended a free airport siege workshop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
englishoak Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Good luck with the languages bit, nevermind come next year there will be plenty of people available that speak a multitude of languages and decently. Sadly Thailand wont be providing many the other Asean members will be. Far too late for Thailand now, its had plenty of time and now its going to pay the price for complacency. I expect the excuse will be bad foreign teachers fault and not the keen hard studying and diligent students here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSJ Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) What a load of bol-lox ! Waffling on when 2 paragraphs would suffice. Edited January 19, 2015 by BSJ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon43 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Maybe they will wake up when this Asean thing kicks in, and all The Malaysian and Filipinos, who have good English skills, come and take all the jobs?? But they won't take the jobs. Because at the end of this when Asean kicks in, the free movement of labour is generally restricted to unskilled workers.Thailand (and other Asean members) will still maintain their restrictions on foreign (Asean) workers. As a small hotel owner (the hotels are small, not me!), I'd love to employ a Filipina/o manager and/or Myanmar staff. Still not easy to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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