Thailand risks losing 200,000 visitors after blasts - tourism office

[anotheruser]

6 hours ago, jaltsc said:

"Thailand could lose up to 200,000 foreign visitors and $293 million in tourism revenue this year, the head of its tourism authority said on Monday, after a series of deadly blasts in tourist towns last week. "

 

Tourism, Tourism, Tourism. Why not abandon the present outmoded education system and effectively educate, and adequately train Thais to be competitive in the global industrial and technical market. Thus not having to depend on outsiders visiting Thailand, and single agricultural exports for a major source of income? Tourism and agricultural products can still be a viable industries. However, they are too prone to weather and socio-political events. 

 

Why is Thailand so dependent on foreigners for income? Because those foreigners visiting Thailand live in industrially advanced nations, and earn a higher wage than than Thais.  Thus they have surplus income to spend. Wouldn't it benefit Thailand more if they could become a greater player in the global economy and create surplus income for its populace?

 

Unfortunately, that would mean changing the old ways of doing business and kicking out those who run the education and business sectors. So, as with most every other change that would benefit Thailand...Ain't gonna happen.

 

One reason is that Thais can be very hard to train. It isn't as simple as you make it out to be. Ask the Japanese that run factories about how easy it is to find good labor and train Thais to do even the simplest of tasks. To accomplish this you would have to start much earlier when they are in preschool to achieve a desirable result. So what you are saying is why don't they simply just over haul their entire educational system from the bottom up? 

 

That would be a task of immense scale and Thailand lacks the political will to do it. 

[lostinisaan]

10 minutes ago, sahibji said:

hi lostinisaan

possibly it  is a typo in your write up. but the loss of revenue is $293 million and not BILLION.

 

 Please don't tell me that you believe any numbers that come from people who need a calculator to add 3 and 3. 

[Thian]

6 minutes ago, anotheruser said:

 

One reason is that Thais can be very hard to train. It isn't as simple as you make it out to be. Ask the Japanese that run factories about how easy it is to find good labor and train Thais to do even the simplest of tasks. To accomplish this you would have to start much earlier when they are in preschool to achieve a desirable result. So what you are saying is why don't they simply just over haul their entire educational system from the bottom up? 

 

That would be a task of immense scale and Thailand lacks the political will to do it. 

 

We also need somtam lady's and kao pad cooks. Thai don't need education for that.

[Winniedapu]

1 hour ago, sujoop said:

And here I thought only 1 person (in Do-Buy) would take pleasure from such heinous acts on innocent people and the fallout which could affect many jobs, the economy, livelihoods, stability, tourism, etc.

 

Well, there you go. Now you've got two.

 

But in fairness, your post is a bit silly. I take no pleasure in heinous acts at all. My heart goes out to the victims and the injured. What I do enjoy is watching the effect it has on the Thai government.

 

So, friend; if you're going to unpleasant, best be unpleasant and accurate eh?

 

Winnie

Edited August 16, 2016 by Winniedapu

[masuk]

Unflattering comment about your spelling and punctuation edited out.  Pot calling the kettle black?

[Winniedapu]

1 hour ago, sujoop said:

And here I thought only 1 person (in Do-Buy) would take pleasure from such heinous acts on innocent people and the fallout which could affect many jobs, the economy, livelihoods, stability, tourism, etc.

 

Well, there you go. Now you've got two.

 

But in fairness, your post is a bit silly. I take no pleasure in heinous acts at all. My heart goes out to the victims and the injured. What I do enjoy is watching the effect it has on the Thai government.

 

So, friend; if you're going to obnoxious, best be obnoxious and accurate eh?

 

Winnie

[Winniedapu]

1 hour ago, sujoop said:

 

And what does one's superiority complex have to do with a drop in tourism? Let's hope for better outlooks ahead on both fronts.

 

Ah yes, Alfred Adler coined that term, and he was as far wide of the mark there as in most things he wrote or made up. Notwithstanding, I assume you mean you think I have a superiority complex, and that you reached that conclusion never having spoken to me or met me. Perhaps you have a gift.

 

What I don't follow is why Thais not being able to add up two numbers without a calculator means I have a superiority complex, or anything else.

 

Did you go to the non sequitur university? or was it just the jump-to-wrong-conclusions grade school?

 

Winnie

[arithai12]

Thailand could lose up to 200,000 foreign visitors

 

I am crying already.

[Detectorist]

Yet TAT has a plan with 5 brilliant campaigns all targeted at domestic travel and they exc=ect to hit their 2.14 trillion baht and now 34 million foreign tourist arrivals. Delusional.

[ChrisY1]

As someone already mentioned....200,000 visitors is a piddling drop out of 30 million.

My guess would be significantly higher........the news of the bombings has gone global.....there's now the reality that southerners are involved....and these people claim a death toll of 7000+ over the years.

The prospect of them moving their issues north, is obviously very real now.......

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

So what's their plan to stop further bombs??? Death patrols like Marcos in Mindanao or the soft approach or maybe move the whole population of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani to Malaysia? Think they got no idea at all. 

[bkkcanuck8]

41 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

As someone already mentioned....200,000 visitors is a piddling drop out of 30 million.

My guess would be significantly higher........the news of the bombings has gone global.....there's now the reality that southerners are involved....and these people claim a death toll of 7000+ over the years.

The prospect of them moving their issues north, is obviously very real now.......

 

I would expect maybe a bit higher.... but the bigger problem is it will disproportionately affect the well heeled traveler than the riff raff..... Japanese tend to be a bit skittish.

[ddavidovsky]

It's good at least that they care about tourist numbers. Tourism is the safety valve that will save the country, come the revolution. It is inadmissible that this essential source of revenue is disrupted. It's the only reason I feel safe here.

[Golden Triangle]

One more outrage (Bombing) will put the mockers on their predictions for tourists, except of course the hard core mongers that only come for 2 things, beer & snatch.

 

So far Pattaya has remained unscathed, how long will the heightened security presence be maintained ? give it another few days and the Army will be back in barracks, the Police will retreat to their cosy offices and it will be business as usual, then a few well placed explosive devices can be planted in places like Central Festival, Walking Street and - excuse the spelling, Soi Buchkow. Now that would have serious repercussions. 

 

I have said to friends many months or even years ago that Pattaya is one of the jewels in the crown of tourism in Thailand and as such a prime target. Mark my words.  

[digibum]

11 hours ago, jaltsc said:

"Thailand could lose up to 200,000 foreign visitors and $293 million in tourism revenue this year, the head of its tourism authority said on Monday, after a series of deadly blasts in tourist towns last week. "

 

Tourism, Tourism, Tourism. Why not abandon the present outmoded education system and effectively educate, and adequately train Thais to be competitive in the global industrial and technical market. Thus not having to depend on outsiders visiting Thailand, and single agricultural exports for a major source of income? Tourism and agricultural products can still be a viable industries. However, they are too prone to weather and socio-political events. 

 

Why is Thailand so dependent on foreigners for income? Because those foreigners visiting Thailand live in industrially advanced nations, and earn a higher wage than than Thais.  Thus they have surplus income to spend. Wouldn't it benefit Thailand more if they could become a greater player in the global economy and create surplus income for its populace?

 

Unfortunately, that would mean changing the old ways of doing business and kicking out those who run the education and business sectors. So, as with most every other change that would benefit Thailand...Ain't gonna happen.

 

Essentially what you are describing is what many nations struggle with when they go from an export based economy to a more stable economy that relies on domestic demand.  

 

Thailand is not unique in the sense that wages have to rise in order for demand to increase but nobody wants to pay higher wages until the demand occurs.  Chicken and the egg.  

 

But in other countries, typically the government sees the writing on the wall and steps in and invests in projects that push the process forward.  It can be painful because it means a total shakeup of the way things have been for decades but it has worked before and there's no reason it wouldn't work in Thailand.  

 

This is why Thailand wants to become the "hub" of everything.  They want to become a technology hub but have no technology expertise.  They want to become an aviation hub but have one of the worst aviation ratings in the region.  They want to become a logistics hub despite still being heavily Thai-language based.  Etc, etc, etc.  They're fascinated with hubs because they know they need to do something different and they're hoping, much like the tourism sector, that they can just announce something and foreigners will just dump truckloads of cash and solve all of their problems.  Then they'll figure out how to steal ownership and control once someone has gotten the engine running.  

 

Unfortunately, as you point out, steering the ship in another direction takes time, effort, and commitment.  All of which Thailand lacks.  It would mean someone standing up and admitting that the Thai educational system is a failure and it needs to be replaced with western style education.  Thais would have to get over the "learning English might make people think we were colonized" mentality and learn to speak the international language of business.  It would mean actually having an attractive business climate that would persuade people to start businesses in Thailand and bringing in foreign talent that Thais could learn from and leverage.  

 

But we know none of that is going to happen.  Hello sixth place in ASEAN!  

 

 

[muzmurray]

19 hours ago, american12bthai said:

forced visa runs-WITH WORK PERMIT

 

Can you explain this please ?

[Winniedapu]

14 hours ago, Detectorist said:

Yet TAT has a plan with 5 brilliant campaigns all targeted at domestic travel and they exc=ect to hit their 2.14 trillion baht and now 34 million foreign tourist arrivals. Delusional.

 

And now they apparently want to attract Pokemon players.

 

Tourism must really be as good as Mme Popcorn claims right?

 

Winnie

[Thechook]

Don't worry, the tourism minister has announced in another thread that pokemongo is going to be a boost to tourism.