On the Uthai Thani Tourism Authority of Thailand Facebook page, they posted information about the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration in that area of Thailand.

I posed a question to them asking why was it 12 days long since a New Year celebration is generally one day (at least in the West).  But, then I momentarily forgot that this is the Tourism Authority of Thailand and holidays are s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to last as long as foreign and local tourists are willing to spend money.

Here is the original Facebook post, with Bing translation, and question I asked to the Tourism Authority of Thailand Uthai Thani Provincial Office:

TAT Uthai Thani ??????????????? ?????????????????? 16 – 27 ?????? 2555 ??? ?????????????????????????????? ????????????????
Chinese new year Dragon for the estuary this year 16-January 27, 2012 and then meet the artificial Beach known Kas Sathorn.

Larry Westfall Since when is Chinese New Year 12 days long?

TAT Uthai Thani The real Chinese New Year for 2012 is 23 Jan but at Nakhonsawan,they have the Chinese New Year Festival is the Traditional.

Lee Craker it’s a secret …. shhhhh

Larry Westfall Thanks. When will it be celebrated throughout Thailand? There is NO information at the tourismthailand.org web site

TAT Uthai Thani ?Larry Westfall : Maybe you can search from this –> http://www.tourismthailand.org/see-do/events-festivals/search-result

Larry Westfall Which shows absolutely nothing happening in Thailand during January 2012 except the Khon Kaen Marathon

And, then nothing further from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

I also found a spot on the tourismthailand.org site that has the year broken down by months and for the month of January 2012 there is no mention whatsoever of Chinese New Year.  Maybe the folks in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan think that there is no celebration for Chinese New Year in Thailand since the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t have any events listed.  Could this be why the Bangkok Post reported that the Chinese are shunning Thailand?

Checking a little further, for the month of February, in the entire kingdom of Thailand, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, there is only a bike tour in Pattaya.  And, again, according to the main, official web site of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, there is absolutely nothing going on from March 2012 through December 2012.  How hard is it to list the same events that happen every year, copy the old text from last year’s post, and then update the dates to reflect minor changes?   Oops.  Forgot again that this is the worthless Tourism Authority of Thailand.

One would think that after the devastating floods in Thailand during 2011 would prompt the Tourism Authority of Thailand to promote the country heavily, work with the private tourism sector to offer discounts and special promotions, and maybe even get Thai Air to cut their airfares (or subsidize them a bit) in order to get the Chinese and the rest of the foreign tourists back to Thailand.

No.  What the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the private tourism sector will do instead is blame the Thai Government and the media in Thailand for publishing reports of possible bomb threats on New Year’s Eve that caused the cancellation of many, many trips from  China to Thailand. Pointing the finger is much easier than actually working and doing your job.

This just goes tot show that the Tourism Authority of Thailand has not changed their inept ways in 2012.  The main web site of the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t have any information about Chinese New Year in Thailand and the Uthai Thani Provincial Office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand sends me to a page that has no information.

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://www.tourismthailand.org/see-do/events-festivals/search-result.

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://www.tourismthailand.org/see-do/events-festivals/search-result/?bymonth=1-2012&start_date=2012-1-1&end_date=2012-1-31.

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://www.tourismthailand.org/see-do/events-festivals/search-result/?bymonth=2-2012&start_date=2012-2-1&end_date=2012-2-28.

Tags: chinese new year facebook fail Provincial Office tourism authority of thailand