The Tourism Authority of Thailand has been scrambling the past couple of weeks in a failed attempt to attract tourists to Thailand during the 2011 Flood.

What the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t seem to realize is that the floods have been going on for a few months and they only jumped in when Ayutthaya was inundated and the floods threatened Bangkok.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Bangkok Flood

I guess that the Tourism Authority of Thailand thinks that foreigners don’t have access to the Internet where they can see the videos and photos of the floods that first hit Chiang Mai and then Isaan.  Tom, at Isaan-Live, has been reporting on the Isaan floods for a few months now with numerous followers.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand made their first attempt at sugar coating the flood situation by posting “situation updates” at tatnews.org.  The problem was they were 1-2 days old, inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, and, in some cases, outright lies.

The second attempt of the Tourism Authority of Thailand was to establish a new web site – Thailand Tourism Update – which is primarily RSS feeds from tatnews.org, The Nation, and the Bangkok Post.  The problem here is that tatnews.org still has out of date information and the two almost English online newspapers continue to give conflicting, inaccurate, incomplete, and false information.  Most of the “news” stories are interviews with incompetent Thai Government officials who do more predicting than solving problems.  Instead of using Facebook/Twitter for updates, the Tourism Authority of Thailand creates another worthless web site.

Lastly, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has now launched a couple of lame videos trying to make everything seem peachy-dandy in Bangkok.  The first of these is an “interview” with the CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) who is spooky to look at and doesn’t instill much confidence to those who are considering coming to Thailand.  I sure hope that no one gets hurt based on this drivel.

The second video from the Tourism Authority of Thailand has two Thais (probably some sort of celebrities here in Thailand) walking around the Emporium Shopping Center on Soi 26 and Sukhumvit in Bangkok.  They ask tourists about the “situation” and, of course, only show the positive responses.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand actually has the gall to call this video a “situation update”.  It is more like a “shopping update”.

Two very lame attempts to get tourists back to Thailand by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  These only came out when the Tourism Authority of Thailand realized that hotel occupancy rates were down, down, down, hotel/flight bookings were being cancelled left and right, and the number of tourist arrivals had dropped significantly.  There were too many doom and gloom reports that the Thai Government Tourism Agencies actually had to come out and say that they may not reach their fictitious number of 19 million tourist arrivals this year.

In an opinion piece at the Bangkok Post, Tourists left in the dark, the author hits the Tourism Authority of Thailand nail on the head.

Tourism authorities – who for weeks have been predicting that the catastrophic floods would have little impact on foreign arrivals because the Andaman region was unaffected – were wrong to assume that everyone, everywhere would know this.

Actually, the Minister of Tourism and Sports said that the floods would have no impact on tourism.  But, the author is correct.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Department of Tourism, and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports have absolutely no clue on foreigners and anything outside the borders of Thailand.

In short, the Tourism Authority of Thailand forgot how fickle the tourism market is. Now there has been a huge wave of cancellations, with the blame put on the floods. This has come just ahead of the Nov 10 celebration of Loy Krathong, long promoted overseas as the most beautiful and magical of Thai festivals and one with enough international drawing power to launch the high season. This should not have happened.

Despite the Tourism Authority of Thailand cancelling the Loy Krathong celebration in Bangkok, the Tourism Authority of Thailand Amazing Thailand Facebook page continues to advertise it misleading possible tourists.  Loy Krathong will still happen throughout Thailand, just not at the Chao Phraya River.

Prompting some of these cancellations have been media reports that the popular venues of Ayutthaya and Sukhothai are either inundated or difficult to reach, which are true. But this is only part of the story. Suvarnabhumi Airport and the capital’s major hotels, along with all of the country’s eastern seaboard and southern provinces are flood-free and ready to welcome festival visitors. This is a vital piece of information which the TAT failed to communicate to potential tourists.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand FAILED to communicate anything of any importance to anyone.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand preferred to just give ambiguous statements like “areas where tourists usually go are not affected by the floods” without providing any detailed, accurate information.

Call it damage control, averting a crisis, or just getting the message across; the fact is that we aren’t very good at it.

Uh, no – the Thai Government, including the Tourism Authority of Thailand SUCKS at it.

What makes a fast, pro-active, aggressive response through commercial channels so important is the need to counter misconceptions arising from weeks of global media coverage of the floods – in particular the wrong belief that the entire country is flooded or that the airport is closed.

And, this is where the Tourism Authority of Thailand failed miserably.  Instead of providing updates via Facebook and/or Twitter, the Tourism Authority of Thailand only posted daily promos for events that were cancelled.

There should be no attempt to downplay the severity of the flooding, the great loss of life and livelihoods, the property damage, large-scale manufacturing paralysis and the sheer misery caused to millions. But there is a little light among the darkness. The majority of provinces are dry and so are most tourist resorts. Millions of Thais will still enjoy Loy Krathong, although some long-suffering flood victims might baulk at the idea of paying respects to the spirit of the waters after weeks of inundation.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand FAILED here too downplaying a country-wide natural disaster, providing no information about the provinces in Isaan, and not telling potential tourists that Loy Krathong is still going to be celebrated in areas other than the main venue in Bangkok.

With many foreign tourists opting for other destinations, Thai tourists in short supply and the likelihood that floodwaters will be around for several more weeks, a measure of despair is gripping the tourism industry, which is in no shape to deal with yet another calamity.

Basically, they are shitting thier collective pants.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand will continue to try to paint a rosy picture, but they need to face the reality that tourists are not coming to Thailand and that they FAILED to communicate accurate information and share a lot of the blame and responsibility for tourists not coming.  The problem is that the Tourism Authority of Thailand will not accept any responsibility and will blame it all on the floods, foreign newscasters, foreign embassies with their warden messages saying to stay away from Thailand, and other agencies of the Thai Government for mismanaging the entire situation.

The government must consider urgent confidence-building measures for the tourism industry. One plea has come for low-interest loans but it will take more than money. The most dramatic suggestion has come from Science & Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, who predicts that climate change will not only bring up to 50 per cent more rain but extend the rainy season by one or two months. He recommends that the tourism calendar be adjusted. That might be easier said than done.

This guy is a total idiot and unqualified as a “Science and Technology” Minister.  He is the guy that had the brilliant plan to put 1,000 boats on the Chao Phraya River and firing up the engines assuring the entire country that these propellers would force the water out to sea.  And, now he wants to stick his nose in the tourism industry with a plan to adjust the tourism calendar?  What does that mean?  Make the HIGH season longer?  How does the S&T Minister all of a sudden become the Tourism Authority of Thailand expert?

Maybe now you can see how screwed up the Thai Government in general and the Tourism Authority of Thailand specifically are.

Tags: bangkok damage control department of tourism disaster flood Ministry of Tourism and Sports mots pacfic asia travel association pata TAT tourism authority of thailand video