I referenced this article from the TTR Weekly, Bangkok loses November Bookings, in a previous post and after re-reading one small section from the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, Suraphon Svetasreni, I just had to write some more.

I have been highly critical of the Tourism Authority of Thailand for over one year now and with good reasons – inaccurate and incomplete information, being ignored when asking questions, and seeing 99% of everything that TAT posts on Facebook in the Thai language.  All this means to me is that the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t care about foreign tourists.

Somtam

I have been extremely critical of the Tourism Authority of Thailand during the flood crisis here in Thailand for their sugar-coated, inaccurate, old, incomplete, and in many cases, completely wrong information that they claim are “situation updates”.

Now, the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand has gone on record explaining why the reporting from TAT is so bad.

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.

This tells me two things: 1) – the Thai Government is censoring the Thai Government mainly to protect the image of Thailand (face) and, 2), Thai Government Agencies are required to lie to make bad things look good.

Now, a friend of mine, Scott, remarked that this would change my constant harsh criticism of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. I replied that it wouldn’t make a difference at all.  In fact, it may make my criticism even harsher.

Why, you may ask?  Because, the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand needs to grow a pair of balls and stand up for what is right and true.  He needs to explain to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Department of Tourism and any other Thai Government Agencies that require him to lie to the world, that all this does is harm Thailand’s precious reputation even more.

These old fart Thai Government cronies apparently don’t have a clue when it comes to how foreigners get their travel information, news, videos, and photos.  Certainly, not all from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Smart, foreign travelers, know to check a variety of sources when making travel plans.  And, to get current, up-to-date information, most will use Facebook and/or Twitter. It is very easy to question a news report and get an answer in minutes or even seconds using Social Media properly.

Now, when the floods first started to threaten Bangkok, the Tourism Authority of Thailand did nothing as far as keeping potential tourists updated.  The Minister of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports came out and said that the floods would have no impact on tourism.  And, this was after areas in the north and northeast were already under 1-2 meters of water and the dams were over capacity.  It doesn’t take a genius to understand that the water has to go somewhere and it rolls downhill.

It wasn’t until the Tourism Authority of Thailand started to see tourist arrivals drop and hotel cancellations increase that they started posting “situation updates” on their TAT news web site.  The problem with them was that they were inaccurate, late, incomplete, totally sugar coated, and for the most part, worthless.  But, as the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand has stated, he had to make things look good even if it meant not telling the truth.

Many tourists prior to departing their homeland for a holiday to Thailand, read the almost English online news at the Bangkok Post and The Nation.  Those two media sources did plenty of harm by reporting so much incorrect information, verbatim inaccurate, not fact checked, and incomplete flood information, conflicting and contradictory articles, that most folks went to Facebook and Twitter to verify anything that was claimed in these news rags.

Seeing all of the Thai Government Officials making their bold predictions and then seeing those predictions fail, did nothing to improve Thailand’s image and forced people to seek the truth elsewhere.  Seeing videos and photos all over the Internet of all the cockamamie attempts to try to save inner Bangkok at the expense of the poor folks in Isaan, didn’t help matters either.

Honest photos of Don Mueang Airport under water and reading about the Flood Relief Operations Center (FROC) evacuation just showed that no one in the Thai Government knew what they were doing.  And, then seeing more and more conflicting articles, one after the other, on the front pages of the Bangkok Post and The Nation, just added to the confusion.

Where the Tourism Authority of Thailand failed, was in not getting accurate and timely information to potential customers.  Regardless of the higher-ups censoring what was being published, the Tourism Authority of Thailand should have stood up and made their voices heard and explain how much damage this is going to cost the Thai economy now and tomorrow.

Tags: arrivals damage department of tourism floods Ministry of Tourism and Sports Suraphon Svetasreni tourism authority of thailand