Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) launched a new web site about one month ago, but not for foreigners.

If you want additional proof that the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t really care about foreign tourists, look no further.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Beer

There was an article in today’s Bangkok Post, Arrivals up 24.4% to 8.2m, purely a work of fiction, with the same old rhetoric from the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Everything is wonderful, arrivals are up over the first five months from last year (duh- no riots this year – yet), and TAT will promote to the world and all the emerging markets, and it will generate bazillions of baht, and nothing will affect tourism in Thailand.

There was one small piece in the article that got me.  This is from the illustrious Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor:

The TAT has also upgraded its 1672 call centre with an online channel via http://www.tatcontactcenter.com, which allows tourists to communicate with staff through video calls and live chats.

Unless you can read, write, and speak the Thai language, the web site is totally worthless.  So, who is it for?  Simple.  Thais.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand does not want to help foreigners. That is plain to see.

There is also a Facebook page for the TAT ContactCenter, again, all in Thai, with the occasional copy/paste of something posted in English to the tourismthailand.org web site.

Take a look at this wonderfully helpful site supposedly for foreigners. TAT Contact Center.

Yes, there are navigation tabs across the top in English – About Us, Our Services, News Update, Photo and VDO Album, FAQ, and Contact Us.

Here is part of the Thai version of “About Us”

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? ??? TAT Call Center 1672 ??????????????????????? ??????? ?????????? ?????? “????????????????????? TAT Contact Center” ?????????????????????????????????????????? Integrated on & off line Service ????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Which Google translates to:

With the development of a dynamic world with the digital age. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has raised the level of service from the TAT Call Center 1672 to a range of services to date and under the “Information Center travel TAT Contact Center” that focuses on strategy, Digital Marketing Integrated on & off line Service applications. To provide travelers with a variety of services and channels. And meet the needs of the tourist experience.

Good thing I had already finished my coffee, or I would have spit it out on my laptop screen.  They are a million miles away from meeting the needs of the tourist experience unless they are referring to Thai tourists.

For “Services”, the page translates to they are available from 0800-2000 for phone calls and video chat, and info about Thailand is available through touch tone on your phone the rest of the time.  There is also something about local rates charged for Japan, US, UK, Sweden and Australia.  One would think that ALL calls would be toll free.  Guess the “Emerging Markets” have to pay International Rates to try to get information. I wonder if anyone at the TAT ContactCenter speaks Estonian!!

The “News Update” is all in the Thai language, and isn’t news.  It is just whatever is being promoted to the Bangkokians.

The “Photo and VDO” section has two photo albums with a total of 26 photos and there are 3 lame videos.  I guess that the other Facebook Tourism Authority of Thailand pages haven’t taught the TAT ContactCenter how to steal photos and claim them as their own yet.

The “FAQ” page is blank. Lots of help there!

The “Contact Us” page has a map, address, and email contact form – all in the Thai language.  Really helpful for foreign tourists.

The other thing strange about the web site, is that it is a .COM and not a .GO.TH or a .ORG (like tourismthailand.org) – these are Thai Government web sites and should use .GO.TH.  And, at the bottom of the page, you can see advertisements from an airline and resorts.  Wonder how much the Tourism Authority of Thailand was paid for the banners?  And, who got the money?

So, once again, the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand has reported to the Bangkok Post that he is doing wonderful things to help foreign tourists when it is all just smoke and mirrors.  No one questions anything this guy says.

He has managed to create a web monstrosity under the guise of going “digital”.  Instead of having things consolidated and actually providing relevant information to Thais and Foreigners alike, one has to hunt all over the WWW to find information.

And, once found, there is no guarantee that it is correct or complete.  And, rarely is the info in a language other than Thai.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand main Facebook pages, Amazing Thailand and Sukjai Thailand, along with the new TAT ContactCenter page and all of the Provincial pages, make it almost impossible to get accurate information.

Most of the info on Facebook is in Thai, and when one asks a question in English, one is either ignored, given wrong information, or given incomplete information.  Perfect example was TAT Pattaya put out a severe weather warning on it Facebook page – it is monsoon season over here.  But, it was all in Thai.  I guess that the Pattaya office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand only wanted to warn the Thai people and didn’t really care if foreign tourists got the information about the storm.

I provided a Google Translation to their Facebook post and there was at least one person that thanked me for posting the info in English and also questioned why TAT didn’t since she thought they were supposed to help tourists. Hah!

TAT has also created a nongsukjai blog using wordpress.com, createD additional web sites for games and contests, and basically scatters shit all over the place. They even have a separate site for Tourism Authority of Thailand Press Releases.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand just doesn’t understand how to use the web and social media.  How is one supposed to find information when it is not consolidated smartly under one URL?

And, as a side note, I posted about how the Tourism Authority of Thailand had a big part ruining Khlong Suan, Tradition Traded For Tourism.  The same article above has this to say about areas being promoted currently to local Thais by the Tourism Authority of  Thailand:

At home, the TAT will focus on families, young people and conservative groups as it wants to promote travel as part of these people’s lives.Key destinations are Pai (Mae Hong Son), Koh Samui, Nan and Chiang Khan (Loei).

See these areas soon, or like I posted previously, they will be gone or ruined.  I already see the writing on the wall in Chiang Khan.

What it boils down to, is, if the Tourism Authority of Thailand is promoting, something or somewhere, you can bet it will soon be ruined.

Tags: contact center facebook foreigners TAT thai language thai people tourism authority of thailand