The Tourism Authority of Thailand can no longer paint a rosy picture  of the tourism market in Thailand.

The months of flooding has the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand remarking that tourism is actually down in the first half of November 2011.

Bueng Kaen Nakhon Khon Kaen

In an article by TTR Weekly, Bangkok loses November bookings, the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor claims foreign tourist arrivals are down 29% for the first half of November.

The flood crisis in Bangkok has cut travel to Thailand by around 29% during the first half of November according to Tourism Authority of Thailand’s governor, Suraphon Svetasreni.

Since the Thailand Department of Tourism, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand all inflate the numbers of foreign tourist arrivals on a monthly basis, my guess is that they lowered the actual number of travel losses by about 50%.

Presenting his latest situation update, Wednesday, Mr Suraphon said he was counting on intensive marketing efforts in cooperation with the private sector to reverse the declines expected to continue into December.

If this “situation update” is anything like the “situation updates” at tatnews.org, then it is old, inaccurate, incomplete, contradictory, and flat out wrong.

Up until 14 November the flood washed out 29% of  Bangkok’s travel arrivals estimated at 346,000 arrivals at city’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

This is based on the Tourism Authority of Thailand expecting approximately 1.2 million foreigners arriving in November.  This number, in reality, is much lower making that 29% estimate about 1/2 of what it should be.  The Airports of Thailand report daily on Twitter (@narongchaiAOT) on TOTAL number of arrivals at Suvarnabhumi.  It has been at the 50,000 – 60,000 arrivals daily.  I estimate that 1/2 of the arrivals are actual foreign tourists; the rest being local Thai nationals and the others being in-transit.  This would bring the monthly total of foreign tourist arrivals at approximately 800,000 – not 1.2 million making the 346,000 no-shows a 45 percent drop.

“As long as Bangkok is flooded there will be declines as visitors are concerned about their safety,” he said, warning declines could be registered in December if the city was still flooded.

As long as the Thai Government continues to give out incorrect, misleading, inaccurate information visitors will go elsewhere.  And, yes, tourists are concerned about safety having seen numerous pictures of piled up trash and waiting for diseases to break out.

The government says it is confident floods will be cleared by late December although some parts of western Bangkok could remain under water much longer.

The Thai Government was confident that the floods would be gone by mid-November, end of November, by New Years.  They don’t have a clue and make constant, worthless predictions.

Despite losses in Bangkok, the TAT governor reported, Phuket International Airport gained 40% in arrivals (45,000 trips) during the first half of November.

Primarily from evacuees escaping from Bangkok – not tourists.

“Phuket has direct air services from many important tourism supply markets in Asia and Europe so travellers do not need to transit in Bangkok,”  he said.

True – but what are the actual numbers of FOREIGN tourist arrivals?

He scolded the press for focusing too much on the flooded areas,  while ignoring entirely the areas of the country that were flood-free.

Scolded the press for doing their job reporting the news.  Even if areas themselves were “flood free” getting to them in many cases was difficult to impossible.

“Just a few of the flooded provinces have tourist attractions such as Ayutthaya, while over areas and provinces that attract tourists such as Hua Hin, Pattaya and Rayong were not affected by the flood,” he said.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand was actually encouraging people to go to Ayutthaya while at the same time, the Thai Government was issuing evacuation orders.  And, there is nowhere to stay in Pattaya, Hua Hin, Rayong, and Cha-am as the fleeing Bangkokians have taken up residence there.

According to TAT data, just 40 attractions out of 1,200, or around 3% of all the country’s tourism sites of value for international visitors, were hit by floods.

Again, if you can’t get to an area, or you are concerned that there isn’t going to be water or food available anywhere, why come to Thailand?  Had the Tourism Authority of Thailand presented accurate and timely information, and if the rest of the Thai Government didn’t look like complete idiots trying to handle the floods, a few tourists may have come to visit.  Even today in the Bangkok Post, there is a story about angry residents in Bangkok bombing a sandbag area injuring six people. No one wants to visit a country with the Government out of control.

“Our objective is to work with tourism organisations and the private sector to communicate  situation updates quicker and more accurately using websites, and social media.”

FAIL and FAIL – there has not been one shred of accurate information at the tatnews web site and the and all that the Tourism Authority of Thailand Amazing Thailand Facebook page does is post an occasional link to the TAT news site.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand is totally clueless on the use of Social Media like Facebook and Twitter.  Plus, the Tourism Authority of Thailand does very little in conjunction with the private sector.

Delivering accurate and impartial news to worldwide travellers is a challenge for TAT at the best of times. Due to its  government status, it has to gain approval for all news and updates before they can be published and the content has to be positive even if the facts suggest differently.

Yep – Thai Government has to approve the lies and sugar-coated spin from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  Most people outside of Thailand turned to Facebook and Twitter to get honest, accurate, unbiased information since most folks outside of Thailand (and inside) don’t trust the Thai Government.

As for recovery marketing campaigns the initial phase will focus on domestic tourism to encourage Thais to visit areas that suffered. It will offer help in the form of what is popularly called volunteer tourism.

This is what the Tourism Authority of Thailand does most of the time anyhow – promote Thailand to Thais.  Now they want Thais to visit areas in their own back yard and do all the clean-up work for free.

On the international front, the TAT expects the European market will bounce back quickly as Europeans are attracted to beach resorts that have not been affected.

Apparently the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t read the news or is totally oblivious to the world economic and financial ruin – especially in Europe.  Nobody has money to travel!

“Given this is a natural disaster recovery should be fast and by Christmas we should recoup bookings from Europe.”

It is a natural disaster greatly exacerbated by the fools in the Thai Government.  Not releasing water in the Northern and Northeastern dams over a period of time (worried about drought), proposing and implementing foolish plans (line up 1,000 boats and attempt to use propeller power to force water out to sea), and the conflicting and contradictory information, evacuation orders, and predictions that have everyone’s head spinning.

He said it would take longer to regain bookings from Asia possibly into January during the Chinese New Year.

It will take longer as the folks in Asia get more accurate information from their own media sources and don’t have to rely on hack stringers like the BBC and CNN do.  Asians tend to get a lot of info from forums and social media too.

TAT is planning to bring in 300 media representatives on all-expensive paid junkets to generate positive news and features.

That should read “all expenses paid” but you get the point.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand answer to most issues – throw money at it.  Wine and dine the media, tell them what to say even if inaccurate or false, and claim that it was a total success.  If only the Tourism Authority of Thailand would learn how to use the Internet and Social Media to their advantage they wouldn’t have to waste money sponsoring boondoggles.

“We will use volunteer tourism to draw arrivals from Asian markets and event marketing to attract tourists starting with Japanese and Taiwanese markets as early as 15 December,” he added.

I think Japan still is cleaning up from the tsunami, earthquake and nuclear fallout from last March.  Why does the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand think that Japanese and Taiwanese people want to come to Thailand to clean up the country for free?

It will be interesting to see what the Tourism Authority of Thailand reports for the month of November to see if it actually reflects a 29% decline (or more) for foreign tourist arrivals.

Tags: bangkok decline department of tourism floods inaccurate lies Ministry of Tourism and Sports phuket Thai Govenment tourism authority of thailand tourist arrivals