Once again, unchecked numbers are being posted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

This time it has to do with the number of tourism arrivals and also the number of tourism sites that the Tourism Authority of Thailand claims were affected by the flooding.

Ayutthaya

Usually, I harp about the fictitious numbers of tourist arrivals that the Tourism Authority of Thailand posts monthly but, today, I am going to discuss the number of tourist sites that the Tourism Authority of Thailand was promoting during the floods.

The Tourist Authority of Thailand is still professing that they will hit record numbers of tourist arrivals despite the flooding that has been going on for three months, the sucky global economy, riots in the Middle East, bankrupt European countries, 20 million unemployed in the United States, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other natural disasters that have hit Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

For the entire month of November, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has been begging people to come and visit Thailand falsely stating that all was well and only 3% of the 1,200 tourist attractions had been affected.  97% of tourist attractions safe from floods is one of many articles published by the almost English online media sources, The Nation and the Bangkok Post.  This message was repeated over and over again in a failed attempt to get tourists back to Thailand.  The above article from 18 November 2011, even claimed that Ayutthaya is “also dry now”.  Parts of Ayutthaya are still flooded and UNESCO is still assessing damage.

Yesterday, in an article entitled Ministry upbeat on target of 18.3m foreign arrivals, the Tourism Authority of Thailand continued spouting pie-in-the-sky numbers of forecasted tourist arrivals.

But, about half-way through the article, the Tourism Authority of Thailand claims the following:

The Department of Tourism expects that 175 tourist attractions were affected by the flooding and need investment of at least Bt560 million for recovery. This budget is now under consideration by the government. All tourist sites should be fully restored within a couple of months after getting the green light from the Cabinet.

Seems strange to me that when Thailand was inundated with floods the Tourism Authority of Thailand claimed that only 40 sites were “affected”.  Now that the floods have receded and every Thai Government agency is begging for money, the Tourism Authority of Thailand claims that 175 sites have been affected by the flooding.

So, was the Tourism Authority of Thailand telling lies when it claimed that only 40 areas, 3%, were hit by the floods, or is the number 175 more accurate?  Or, is it somewhere in-between?

Since I never believe anything with numbers that the Tourism Authority of Thailand puts out, I think that the real number is more than 40 but less than 175.  But, we will never know since no one in the Thai media will ever question a Thai Government Official.

Oh well, we will now have to wait for the next campaign, Beautiful Thailand, to start in the beginning of 2012 so the Tourism Authority of Thailand can make more wild claims.

Tags: ayutthaya flooding floods never believe any numbers from the tourism authority of thailand TAT temple ruins tourism authority tourism authority of thailand tourist arrivals tourist authority of thailand