Tourism is falling drastically in Thailand and the Tourism Authority of Thailand is doing very little in the way of damage control.

In fact, hardly anyone in the Thai Government, including the Tourism Authority of Thailand is doing anything right.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Bangkok Floods

The Tourism Authority of Thailand remains clueless on what to do to attract tourists to Thailand by posting very lame videos on Youtube while the Airports of Thailand (AOT) has started pointing fingers.

If there was an Olympic event for not accepting responsibility and putting the blame on others, Thailand would win hands down.

In an article from the Bangkok Post, Suvarnabhumi dry, images misleading, the AOT is trying to blame the foreign media for misleading their readers.

Images of a Thai Airways International Airbus stranded in deep floodwater at Don Mueang airport have caused misconceptions among many people outside Thailand that Bangkok is closed to air traffic.

Hmmm.  First place I saw photos of Thai Air planes in flood waters at Don Muang were in the Bangkok Post.  Earliest I saw was on Oct 29 in an article titled Don Mueang Airport Flooded.  There may have been earlier photos, but the point is that the initial images came from the Bangkok Post.

That has frustrated both airlines and the management of Suvarnabhumi Airport, the country’s gateway, where it is business as usual and flood prevention defences are said to be very strong.

Well, anyone who has followed the Flood Folly Fiasco in Thailand has read numerous predictions of areas that would not be flooded that wound up under water – Don Mueang, Bangkok to name 2.

They point fingers at the media, particularly international news outlets, which have made insufficient effort to tell their audiences that Thailand has two airports and that the main one is still functioning normally.

This may be so at CNN and the BBC, who tend to sensationalize the news and mis-report it (like during the Red Shirt Riots in 2010), but I have seen very little about the floods at all on Fox and my family and friends in the US didn’t even know that there was flooding until I told them.  They have seen little or nothing on Mainstream Media TV in the U.S.  The folks that have made the “insufficient effort” are the Thai Government and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

“As long as [the media] flash images of planes stranded at Don Mueang, and don’t clearly state that the main airport, Suvarnabhumi, is functioning, then we will see more and more visitors shying away, adding insult to injury,” said Somchai Sawasdeepon, senior executive vice-president of Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT).

Hard to believe anything reported in the news since most of comes from Thai Government Officials that no one believes.  If the Bangkok Post and The Nation actually sent reporters out in the field instead of relying on a retired reporter (the old reporter – the guy on his bicycle that reported daily to the Post) or relying on blog posts at pantip.com, then maybe they would have some credibility and we might believe some of what is reported.

Executives of Centara Hotels & Resorts, one of Thailand’s largest hospitality operators, agreed that most people outside Thailand were not aware that the flooding affected only Don Mueang. However, they said that Asian tourists were already shifting to other countries and European tourists were postponing trips to unaffected areas including Phuket, Samui, Krabi and Chiang Mai.

Once again, many foreigners rely on English speaking, online news.  But, when that news is inaccurate, incomplete, conflicting, old, and at times completely false, it is hard to know what exactly is the truth.  This is where the Thai Government and the Tourism Authority of Thailand failed miserably at using social media (Facebook and Twitter) to it full potential.

They complained that the government, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports were not doing enough to dispel the misconception.

This is one million % correct.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand on their Amazing Thailand Facebook has yet to post one update there.  They only point a link to their tatnews web site which has 1-2 day old “situation updates” and to a new web site that is mostly news feeds (RSS) from the Bangkok Post and The Nation.  Instead of posting the truth on Facebook with current, accurate updates, the Tourism Authority of Thailand posts poems and promotes Loy Krathong – which has been cancelled.  Then, they post an “interview” with a spooky CEO at PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) on Youtube basically begging people to visit Thailand.  I think this video does more to scare people away.  Another FAIL for the Tourism Authority of Thailand in the Social Media Department.

Mr Somchai, also the acting general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, reaffirmed his confidence that the main airport was capable of dealing with floods, though he believed the likelihood of water reaching Suvarnabhumi was low.

Kinda what was said about Don Mueang – and why the Flood Relief Operation Center, free parking for Bangkokian’s cars and trucks and an evacuation center.  After about 10 days. it is 1 meter under water.  Maybe this is why tourists don’t believe what is said.

He took journalists to inspect the flood prevention facilities at the airport on Friday. However, many photographers chose positions that resulted in images of aircraft approaching and taking off above the reservoir adjacent to the airport. Those pictures were widely circulated over the weekend.

So, they took photos that showed water near the airport.  They are telling the truth – unlike the Thai Government that lies outright and the Tourism Authority of Thailand that sugar-coats everything.

There are 3.5-metre-high polder dykes surrounding the airport. Construction of the dykes started in 1995 and was completed in 2000, which has made them very strong and capable of preventing the penetration of water.

Hmmm.  Eleven to sixteen years old and that makes them strong?  I would think that it would make them weaker especially having witnessed Thai construction.

Last week, the Department of Highways drilled the dykes to test their strength and found them to be highly secure and very capable of preventing water from the outside, if the water level is less than 3.5 metres high, he noted.

Like I am going to believe another of the multitude of Thai Government Agencies that have already shown their incompetence.

Furthermore, Mr Somchai said Suvarnabhumi had a high-standard water-management system, with drainage canals all around the site to drain water into the reservoirs, which have capacity to store 4 million cubic metres of water _ four times the volume they contain now.

Suvarnabhumi is built on a swamp.  Enough said.

There are two main pump stations, each equipped with four water pumps, with ability to drain water at a rate of 12 cubic metres per second or 1 million cubic metres per day.

Much, much more water than that has already poured into Bangkok and more is coming.

Also, the flood-prevention dykes have made the airport a closed area, whereby water cannot flow in from the outside.

That was said about Don Mueang also.

Therefore, the possibility of water leaking through drainage pipes, which has happened in many other places, is extremely remote as the pipes within Suvarnabhumi Airport are not connected to outside pipes.

They have to be connected to the outside somewhere.

As well, travel to and from the airport is unaffected as the roads and the Airport Rail Link tracks are elevated above the dykes.

Yes it is affected as many areas of Bangkok are under water.  One has to get to the elevated areas first and that is proving to be an issue as more and more areas of Bangkok are flooded.

So, don’t blame the foreign press.  Put the blame where it belongs – on the Thai almost English news online and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Tags: bangkok don mueang flood Ministry of Tourism and Sports suvarnabhumi tourism authority of thailand