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Mismanaging The Tourism Authority Of Thailand

By admin on January 26, 2012 in TAT, Thailand / no comments / 179 views

Like every other Thai Government Agency, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is being mismanaged and the answer to every problem is to throw more money at it.

Once again, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is asking for an increase in their budget – this time 3 BILLION baht for fiscal year 2013.

Chinese New Year

The Bangkok Post is reporting, TAT asks for 79% higher budget, which works out to approximately 100 million dollars. What will the Tourism Authority of Thailand do with all of this money? Here is what Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, had to say:

TAT governor Surapol Svetasreni said strategies for tourism in fiscal 2013 will focus on improving the country’s image under the Amazing Thailand slogan and upgrading to a quality leisure destination.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand can do neither. Thailand’s image was damaged during the 2011 floods and again with the terrorism plot cover-up by the Thai Government. The damage caused by choosing tourism over countering terrorism is irreparable. The “Amazing Thailand” slogan has become a sarcastic way of defining everything that is wrong with Thailand. And, as far as considering Thailand a “quality leisure destination”, the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand would have to rid the country of every corrupt Thai politician, every scammer in Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket, clean every beach, remove every beggar, fix every taxi meter, repave all the roads, etc., etc., etc.,

“We intend to build up emotional satisfaction among tourists to pave the way for sustainable marketing,” he said.

One hundred million dollars to build up emotional satisfaction??? What happened to the 300 million baht that you asked for after the floods? What happened to the increase you requested for fiscal year 2012?

I used to work as a civilian for the U.S. Army and one of my many jobs was to work with the communications budget for the United States Army Pacific. If I wanted an increase, I better have a detailed, to the penny, list of expenditures that I was proposing to the 3-star General. If I told the boss that I wanted money to promote the image and increase emotional satisfaction, he would have thrown me out of his office and most likely would have had me fired – or moved to an inactive post.

He said other destinations such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar have become more popular, and Thailand needs a bigger budget to compete with the increasingly fierce competition.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand is finally seeing the light. TAT is getting killed in the fight for tourist dollars because Thailand has nothing new to offer unless you want to see cities under water or inept governments. A bigger budget is not the answer. If the Tourism Authority of Thailand knew what it was doing, the could make better use of Social Media an actually trim their budget.

In another development, the TAT expects Thailand Privilege Card Co (TPC), the debt-ridden operator of the Thailand Elite Card, will close in April. Mr Surapol said the shutdown process could last until September 2014 if the company is sued by cardholders.

This is/was a total fiasco that totally screwed foreigners. The Thailand Elite Card was supposed to bring in a bunch of revenue and give special privileges to those elite, rich foreigners. Instead it was abused by elite, rich Thais. The Tourism Authority of Thailand will drag this out as long as possible and pray no one sues them.

The TAT, TPC’s sole owner, estimates the closure will cost 190 million baht excluding compensation to cardholders, which will exceed 2.5 billion baht, and other business damages.

Nothing has been said as to what happens to those who purchased the card and their visas to stay in Thailand. Will they still be valid?

Just goes to show that the Tourism Authority of Thailand is clueless when it comes to marketing to foreigners and completely mismanages everything related to touris in Thailand.