Hats off to Thailand's foreign fans and their tribute videos

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EDITORIAL
Hats off to Thailand's foreign fans and their tribute videos
The Nation

Accounts of former visitors uploaded online for all to see, admire, and envy are benefiting the country immensely

BANGKOK: -- With the economy still in a slump as exports and manufacturing recover at a dreadfully slow pace, tourism is one of the few business sectors that have continued to bring in much-needed revenue. Tourism's contribution to GDP has been without interruption, suffering only briefly in times of dire political uncertainty.

Thailand is blessed with abundant natural beauty, from the mountains to the seashore, and with an unshakeable reputation for hospitality, to the point that financial investment in tourism infrastructure can be relatively limited in scope. The Land of Smiles remains a huge draw, with something for every visitor, whether they come for the scenery, the culture, the unusual - or, yes, even for vice.

Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul told the Cabinet at its "mobile meeting" in Chiang Mai on Tuesday that she's confident of attaining targets this year. Those goals are 28.8 million tourist arrivals and Bt2.2 trillion in revenue, the figures another significant jump on the previous ones - 24.7 million foreign tourists last year spending Bt1.8 trillion.

The Tourism Authority and the countless small-scale businesses that enable it to set, reach and often exceed such targets deserve the bulk of the credit and our enthusiastic appreciation. But we'd also like to raise a hat to another segment of contributors - the increasingly influential hordes of foreigners who are sharing their memories, photos and videos of Thailand online.

There are currently hundreds if not thousands of visitors - as well as foreign expatriates living here -uploading videos about their visits and stays in the Kingdom to the social media, particularly YouTube. They might be doing so just for the sake of boasting, but they are inadvertently helping to promote tourism and are certainly inspiring others to come.

As varying in quality as their videos and accounts are, we couldn't ask for better publicity. It's far more convincing, after all, to get a frank report from actual visitors than to accept at face value the honesty of government advertisements or the promises of the businesses offering services.

The many expats sharing videos on the Web tend to focus on places to visit and dine that will be of primary interest to other foreigners living here. Some of them have become "celebrities" in their respective fields of pursuit, accumulating 100,000 or more YouTube "followers".

The videos by foreigners, some of them of professional production quality, are inspiring people around the world to book trips to Thailand. Local tour guides and restaurateurs talk of being astounded at how much advance information the modern traveller brings, thanks to the videos. And chances are that many of these same first-timers will turn around and share their own "travel video blogs".

We propose that the ministry and the Tourism Authority initiate a campaign to reward such efforts. A contest to determine the best Thailand video on YouTube in various categories - those geared to families, vegan food, beaches, Bangkok, etc - would be a good place to start. The winners could claim free airfare for a return trip.

This mass of Thailand fans overseas and the appreciate expats in our midst deserve praise from the government for contributing so much to tourism promotion, intentionally or not. They should be encouraged to keep up the good work.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Hats-off-to-Thailands-foreign-fans-and-their-tribu-30263523.html


-- The Nation 2015-07-02

[farang000999]

Search Thailand in YouTube and see what comes up and what words the auto fill suggests after Thailand. Hint: it's not beaches.

[geriatrickid]

I went to one popular site and typed in Thailand. Here are my results and they are not impressive;

- Half A Brain On The Road. Accident in Thailand.

- Thailand Documentary Darker Side of Bangkok Full Documentary
- Ahaha! Lots a' Thai Lady/boys On The Thailand Women's National Team at 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
- Russian Man Found Dead on Coral Beach
- A man has the bad idea to rub his penis in a nest of red ants. (Rayong, Thailand)

- Truck hits scooter accident caught on camera Thailand

- Drunk Korean Doesn't Understand Thai Guy And Is Helped To Go To Sleep KTFO style.

- Thailand School 'bus' accident spews students all over road like cabbages (Krabi, Thailand)

[Manbing]

Why not try celebrating and respecting visitors to Thailand as a way to encourage investment and tourism.

Idea 1. Stop foreigners dying when they visit for holidays.

Idea 2. Prosecute Thais who rob, steal and murder .

Idea 3. Allow foreigners who come to live in Thailand to invest, money and actually have ownership of property and companies, rather than relying on trusting their g/f's to not rob them blind.

Just a few ways Thailand can help itself

[WitawatWatawit]

Tiptoe through the tulips with meeee-eeee!

[quandow]

"With the economy still in a slump as exports and manufacturing recover at a dreadfully slow pace"

A drop of 7.6% is recovering?!?!?

[Fullstop]

unshakeable reputation for hospitality

"Three tourist visas already? .. <deleted>#k off!"

"Worked as a teacher for 4 years already? ... <deleted>#k off"

"Not spending enough as a tourist? ... <deleted>#k off"

[toybits]

Gold and jewelry shop videos? Tuktuk and jetski operators? Ladyboy and service girl videos?

[lildragon]

This thread will get to at least ten pages I'm sure

[Johnny S]

Ms. Popcorn strikes again ....

[wabothai]

Hats off to Thailand?

[FangFerang]

When they pay people to make videos they always forget to insist they are believable. We need more stories like "taxi driver returns British Crown Jewels to clandestine M5 operator who dropped them while on the way to a prayer meeting."

[mick01827]

"With the economy still in a slump as exports and manufacturing recover at a dreadfully slow pace"

A drop of 7.6% is recovering?!?!?

Its quite sad that you find one countries struggle a bit of a joke Edited July 2, 2015 by mick01827