The Tourism Authority of Thailand hosted a “mega fam trip” from 6-18 December 2011 to supposedly woo tourists back to  Thailand after seeing massive losses in foreign tourist arrivals during October, November, and December due to floods throughout Thailand.

According to a Tourism Authority of Thailand News Release at their tatnews.org web site, “Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has invited more than 350 travel agents and journalists from around the world to come and see the all-clear situation for themselves.”

Thailand 2011 Floods

This brilliant plan from the Tourism Authority of Thailand to bring together all these folks from the media for a familiarization trip was intended to get the word out that Thailand is safe to visit now.  But, when I do a Google search for “Tourism Authority of Thailand’ “Mega Fam Trip”, I don’t see any “journalists” or “Travel bloggers” listed in the search results.  All I see is the Tourism Authority of Thailand and their news release announcing it.

I wasn’t even going to write about this, since it is the same old Tourism Authority of Thailand shit again.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand did this in 2010 when the Red Shirts were rioting.  They had a “fam trip” for journalists to show them that Bangkok was safe for Songkran. Bangkok was set afire the next month.

The reason I decided to write about this “mega fam trip” was the Tourism Authority of Thailand Bangkok Office posted links to YouTube videos yesterday (January 10, 2011) covering this Amazing Thailand event.  Watch the Tourism Authority of Thailand Bangkok Office videos and see what a waste of time and money this was.

If you took the time to watch the videos, you will see that these are absolutely worthless in attracting foreign tourists.  First off, the videos are completely in the Thai language and if what they are showing is the BIG MEGA FAM TRIP, then it was only for local Thais and not for foreigners.  It looked to me like any other Tourism Authority of Thailand convention that shows a bunch of crap and winds up being a photo op for the Tourism Authority of Thailand staff.

Here is what it was supposed to be according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand Press Release:

As part of the “Beautiful Thailand” recovery campaign, the Mega Fam trip participants are visiting Thailand between 6-18 December 2011, and will fan out across different parts of the kingdom in order to send the message back to their clients, readers, viewers and followers that Thailand is back to normal and ready to receive visitors.

Well, perhaps there are additional Tourism Authority of Thailand videos as these two didn’t show anyone fanning out anywhere in the country.

TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said, “We began working on this fam trip the moment we were sure that the flooding situation would clear-up in a few weeks. We are thankful to all our partners including our national carrier Thai Airways International, private sector and government agencies that responded quickly to our initiative.”

Initiative?  All the Tourism Authority of Thailand had to do was email the same old players and invite them for a boondoggle at the Thai Government’s expense.  Wonder why Thai Air was invited as they had cancelled 500 flights during the month of December that surely didn’t help tourism.

The Governor said that bringing in the media and travel agents would be the best way of ensuring that the positive side of the recovery is known to the world as soon as possible. “The global media reported on the unprecedented flooding crisis in their traditional newsworthy style, but now that things are improving, the media has moved onto other issues. So we have to step in and ensure that we use all the various forms of media, including our own social media networks.

The Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand gets it wrong again.  There sure hasn’t been a lot of positive reporting in the global media that I have seen.  I have alerts set on Google to email me when a specific keyword or phrase is in the news.  I don’t get much except for the almost English news media Bangkok  Post and The Nation.  Guess these 350 folks weren’t very impressed.  Also, if “our own social media” is Facebook, you haven’t done jack shit there to promote Thailand.  You don’t even have events listed for 2012 on your main site, tourismthailand.org.

We believe that the floods are now over and most of the tourist attractions and services in the flooded areas are operational and ready to welcome visitors. We need to get this message out to the travel community overseas as soon as possible. Therefore, the main objective of this Mega Fam trip is to provide first-hand information to the media and travel agents. Our major focus is now on bringing back tourists’ confidence to Thailand.” He said.

Confidence was lost overseas when foreigners read the bullshit reports from the Thai Government and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  Watching the flood mis-management at all levels of Thai Government all over the Internet forced many travelers to cancel trips and go elsewhere in ASEAN.  The possibility of bombs going off on New Year’s Eve and the Thai Government trying to cover it up and force the media to not report it bordered on negligence.

The group of 350 travel agents and journalists are from:
Europe: England, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Russia
ASEAN: Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam
The East Asia Region: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China
Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China: Hong Kong
South Pacific: Australia
Middle East: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, and Oman
Africa: South Africa
The Americas: America

Not from what I saw in the two videos.  Looked like all Thais to me.  And, if there were folks from these countries, where are the glowing media reports online?

The American group will visit Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya; the East Asian group will visit Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Hua Hin, Krabi and Pattaya; the ASEAN group will visit Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya, Chiang Rai, Ratchaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Nayok, Khao Yai, Suphan Buri, Samut Songkhram, Cha-am, Hua Hin and Pattaya, and the European group will visit Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya, Krabi and Phuket.

More proof that the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t promote the Isaan region.  I wonder if these folks had to help clean up the ruined ruins at Ayutthaya?

On 13 December 2011, the group was formally welcomed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism and Sports, H.E. Mr. Chumpol Silapa-archa, followed by a presentation on the Thai tourism industry, a live band and cultural performances. They also enjoyed a cocktail party at the Anantara Bangkok Riverside Resort and Spa.

A typical Tourism Authority of Thailand dog and pony show.  Then take them to places only the Tourism Authority of Thailand wants them to see and promote.  Waste of time and money.  Better uses of Social Media would have been more fruitful and less costly.

The rest of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Press Release is a pack of lies about how great tourism is in Thailand and how big the increases are over 2010.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand even claims that tourism is up 21% in November 2011 compared to November 2010.

International visitor arrivals to Thailand by nationality totalled 17.1 million in the period January – November 2011, up by 21.17 per cent over the same period of 2010. The total arrivals can be broken down as thus:

•     North East Asia 4.30 million, up by 34.25%
•     ASEAN 4.90 million, up by 22.07%
•     Europe 4.40 million, up by 13.63%
•     Americas 0.85 million, up by 12.92%
•     South Asia 1.10 million, up by 19.77%
•     Oceania 0.83 million, up by 17.64%
•     Middle East 0.60 million, up by 7.69%
•     Africa 0.12 million, up by 11.84%

More numbers from the Department of Tourism, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand that no one ever questions and are completely false.

For 2011, the TAT is projecting 18.3-18.6 million international visitor arrivals with estimated revenue earnings of 703-716 billion Baht (US$ 22.7-23 billion) in tourism revenue.

For 2011, the Tourism Authority of Thailand claimed over 19 million foreign tourist arrivals exceeding their December predictions and which no one in their right mind believes.

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://www.tatnews.org/tat_release/detail.asp?id=5774.

Tags: foreign tourist arrivals Mega Fam Trip social media TAT tourism authority of thailand travel bloggers