Phuket Opinion: Beckoning the bottom line
The Phuket News

All stakeholders must be sincere and constructive in embracing a 'triple bottom line' moving forward. Photo: The Phuket News / file

PHUKET: At last, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has formally acknowledged the significance of “quality over quantity” with the revelation this past week that the Thai government is no longer exclusively pursuing arrivals targets.

The news was revealed in Phuket at the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) business dinner at the Amari Patong. (See story here.)

Indeed, tourism stakeholders in the kingdom – and especially on our beloved island – strive to dedicate more emphasis in the other prime metric laid forth by the The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO): revenue receipts.

And who would argue with the logic for needing to underline the bottom line?

According to UNWTO’s 2015 Tourism Highlights report, Thailand had a “relatively” tough year last year, with receipts from international tourism equating to US$38.4 billion (about B1.29 trillion), representing an 8% drop on 2013, when the kingdom earned $41.8bn (about B1.33tn at the time), and thus falling from 7th to 9th most profitable tourism economies in the world. (See UNWTO report here.)

Most would agree with the UNWTO that certain “uncontrollable” politics in addition to “unanticipated” economics have had a part in the recent hiccups of Thai tourism.

But there is still much room and reason for debate as to the most promising way forward in respect to factors that we can anticipate and control with careful consideration and planning.

After all, the aforementioned report anticipates international tourist arrivals worldwide to increase by 3.3% annually for the next 15 years, to reach 1.8 billion by 2030, with the market share of emerging economies – including Thailand – expected to reach 57% by 2030, up from 45% last year.

For Phuket stakeholders, the coming future no doubt lies in dedicated marketing communications and PR with an aim to lure an even larger share of this lucrative market.

Central to such outreach efforts will be to continue to push and promote all the unique qualities that enabled Thailand to command a tenth of all international tourism receipts in the Asia-Pacific region last year, claiming more than a third of the Asean market. (See story here.)

But we must also look within and accept our shortcomings, far too numerous to list here. To this, The Phuket News encourages all stakeholders to be sincere and constructive in embracing a “triple bottom line” moving forward.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-opinion-beckoning-the-bottom-line-54060.php

-- Phuket News 2015-09-13

Hard to believe the govt isn't exclusively pursuing arrival targets.

Does this mean an end to all the laughable figures produced on arrivals, projected arrivals and of course how much they spent and will be spending ?

That too is hard to believe as BS is the lifeblood of TAT and the Tourism Minister.

They killed the golden goose, along time ago. Let them reap what they sow!

If the Government is not exclusively pursuing arrival number targets, why is the TCT president proudly announcing the expectation of 30 million tourists this year?

I think this gearing towards quality tourists has been announced every year since I've been in Thailand and what have we got? Ever increasing numbers of cheap package tourists, most of whom only spend five or six days in the country, hence they need an increase in arrival numbers to make up for the reduced period of stay of those tourists.

Hard to believe the govt isn't exclusively pursuing arrival targets.

Does this mean an end to all the laughable figures produced on arrivals, projected arrivals and of course how much they spent and will be spending ?

That too is hard to believe as BS is the lifeblood of TAT and the Tourism Minister.

The last I read was the Chinese where the spending superstars, they spend more per day with an average stay of 4 days then any other Tourists.

Has somebody finally seen the light?? Well now with Thai Airlines not getting it together I hope this time crying will not help to get a better evaluation then they deserve. This is no good sign because lots of Tourist will be stranded in Bangkok. So business will be taken over by even more Charter flights, those who come and depart on time. Not to worry, some other Government department will issue different figures tomorrow and all will be forgotten.

They killed the golden goose, along time ago. Let them reap what they sow!

Wow, two cliches in one sentence. Impressive!

No. I believe it's finally dawned on them their Chinese chums have seen every other type of tourist off.

"lies in dedicated marketing communications and PR" - the use of the word "lies" in marketing and PR for Phuket sums it up perfectly.