Don’t believe the Tourism Authority of Thailand when they report that tourism is up for October compared to October 2010.

Only the private sector gives realistic numbers whereas the Tourism Authority of Thailand makes up numbers to protect the image of Thailand.

Khon Kaen Vendor

There are two articles in the TTR Weekly, Bangkok occupancy sinks, and ATTA calls for clearer recovery message that show how bad tourism really is in Thailand. You can attribute a lot of this to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Here are some of the dire statistics that you won’t hear from the Tourism Authority of Thailand and you won’t see published in the Bangkok Post and The Nation:

“The performance declines are due to the floods and we  monitored a substantial dip in business after Don Mueng Airport was flooded in late October. From there it was downhill through November,” said Mr Prakit.

Thanks in part to the Tourism Authority of Thailand and its late, inaccurate, incomplete, and false “situation updates”.

ATTA president added: “Advanced booking have dropped 90% due to a mix of cancellations and postponed programmes after 26 October. Only the Russia market grew by 10% compared over last year’s performance”.

Some serious loss of revenue there – thank the inept Thai Government’s handling of the flood situation in Bangkok and the poor and inaccurate reports from the Thai Government and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

He warned that tour operators are now waiting for the floods to end before they resume sales of Thailand packages and they would need strong assurances from the government that dealing with public health issues is a top priority.

Lots of mosquitoes around all of this stagnant water and I don’t know if all of the crocodiles and green mambas were re-captured.

ATTA says the latest update, 23 November, showed 90% of Asian travellers cancelled trips to Thailand.

And, you won’t see them until next year, if you see them at all.

Cancellations were the highest from Taiwan at 99.28%, followed by 95.56% from Hong Kong, 84.85% from Japan, 83.98% from China, 70% each from South Korea and Indonesia, 50.5% from Germany, 39.25% from India, 25.93% from Australia, and 23.8% from the UK.

But, I am sure that the Tourism Authority of Thailand will not post numbers this bad when they come out with their November tourist arrivals tally.  At most, my guess, is that they will show about a 5% decline for November and then announce that they hit 18.8 million foreign tourist arrivals – a number double that of reality.

The Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) has some proposals for the Thai Government and the Tourism Authority of Thailand that I am sure will fall on deaf ears.

Here is why:

“The government must avoid talking about highly sensitive issue that could deter tourists’ decisions to travel, while assuring tourists that they can travel without fear of encountering health issues any where in Thailand.”

The Thai Government, quoted verbatim by the hacks at the Bangkok Post and The Nation have continuously reported conflicting information throughout the flood crisis.

Here are the three proposals:

Revise the way news is presented to ensure accurate and trust worthy news gets through to the travel industry worldwide. The association said the Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-achra needs to take the lead  addressing the negative issues that were highlighted by the media.

Won’t happen.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor has already come out and said he cannot provide honest information – he has to put a positive spin on it and cannot report negatively.

It needs to given assurances that it can control political conflict, retain stability and ensure there is a policy to create new tourist attractions.

Nothing can be done about political unrest in Thailand as long as the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts are at odds with each other.  Having former Prime Minister and fugitive from the law, Thaksin Shinawatra, knocking at the Amnesty door doesn’t help either.  No new tourist attractions that I know of.  Time and money would be better spent fixing the old sites, like Ayutthaya and cleaning up the beaches.

Raise tourism product quality and adopt a firm policy to move away from the “cheap tourism models of the past.”

This will be done with the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 when folks from Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and other ASEAN countries take over tourism sector jobs in Thailand.

Another FAIL for the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Tags: Association of Thai Travel Agents atta ministry of tourism and sprots mots occupancy rates TAT tourism authority of thailand