Once again, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is living somewhere in la-la land.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand continues to put out false information about the floods in Thailand in the hopes that tourists will still come despite receiving warnings from their embassies.

Suvarnabhumi Airport

Every day, the Tourism Authority of Thailand posts a one-day old “update” on the flood situation at tatnews.org and every day it is packed full of lies.

Here is part of the update from 17 October 2011 (yesterday):

Major tourist destinations such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Sukhothai, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi, Pattaya, Ko Chang, Rayong, Phuket, Krabi, Trang, Ko Samui, and all provinces in southern Thailand are experiencing normal weather conditions.

On 15 October, I flew to Bangkok and my driver that was to pick me up and take me to Cha-am beach called while I was in Khon Kaen Airport to tell me he couldn’t pick me up because he had one meter of water in his house and his street also had one meter of water. This was from one night of rain.  He lives in Pattaya.  Normal weather?

Ayutthaya has been the only tourist destination widely affected by the floods, while other provinces where tourists generally go have been slightly impacted.

I guess that “slightly impacted” means only 2 meters of water and not 3 or 4.

But, here is the best.  It shows how absolutely ridiculous the Tourism Authority of Thailand is and how they are grasping at anything to try to show that everyone is wrong except for the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

“The flooding is not as widespread as the media coverage may indicate. It has mainly affected some of the provinces in the Central Region,” Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said in a statement. “In Bangkok, the central areas where tourists like to go are not flooded and are fully accessible.”

Yep. The Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand knows more than the media. All those news stories, all those photos, all those videos are not correct.  Only the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor knows what is really going on in Thailand.  What a fucking idiot.

Does the Tourism Authority of Thailand actually think that people will believe this nonsense?

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://tatnews.org/situation_update/5674.asp.

Tags: bangkok floods governor idiot lies TAT tourism authority of thailand