The Tourism Authority of Thailand has come up with a modified version of Name That Tune.

Remember the game show where contestants tried to name a song in the fewest amount of notes?  The Tourism Authority of Thailand has modified that for tourist arrivals.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Street Vendor

The First Contestant in the Tourism Authority of Thailand Name The Year That Thailand Gets 30 Million Tourist Arrivals was Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.  PM Yingluck developed her “Vision 2020″ plan which, by the name, means that she wants 30 million tourist arrivals nine years from now.

The Second Contestant in the Name The Year That Thailand Gets 30 Million Tourist Arrivals was the Pheu Thai Party who came out with a five-year plan that stated they wanted 30 million tourist arrivals.  So, Pheu Thai Party can name it in 5 years.

The Third Contestant in the Name The Year That Thailand Gets 30 Million Tourist Arrivals was the Minster of Tourism who came out and said he wanted it done by 2015 in conjunction with the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).  So, 4 years.

And, a couple of days ago, the Tourism Authority of Thailand joined in the Name The Year That Thailand Gets 30 Million Tourist Arrivals with a target of 2014.

This is from an article in The Nation titled, TAT sets ambitious goal to double arrivals, the weekly rehash of the same story with a few different words and paragraphs rearranged.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand yesterday unveiled its latest marketing campaign, dubbed “The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand”, tasked with doubling both arrivals and income by 2014.

I have said it before, it would be a triple since no one believes the numbers from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The agency will spend Bt500 million over the two-year campaign on marketing activities and communications both here and abroad, with Bt210 million to be used to continue building awareness and communications with targeted markets outside the country.

Generic bullshit with no specific goals.

The agency will earmark Bt180 million for activities, Bt60 million for domestic marketing and Bt50 million for international marketing.

Big waste of money until the Tourism Authority of Thailand learns how to market to foreigners.

 Prakit Phiriyakiat, deputy governor for marketing communications, said that at least seven big events have already been lined up over 15 months to attract foreign tourists.

Don’t believe it.  Two of the BIGGEST events planned are celebrations for Their Majesties’ Birthdays which won’t attract foreign tourists – and they plan on spending 600 million baht just for those two events.

Listed participating events are Formula 1 motor racing, the football league in the United Kingdom, Snow Festival in Sao Paolo, Thailand Golf Open and Australian Open.

All but one are just venues to advertise Thailand – you know – show the same videos of elephants, markets and temples.

International celebrities, particularly those from China, which is now considering Thai TV stars, will be invited to visit Thailand.

How this brings in more tourists from China is beyond me.

TAT will continue promoting traditional Thai festivals like Loy Krathong as world events.

This is a Thailand-only event.  Where do they come with this being a World Event?

It would also boost domestic tourism through this campaign, with 180 activities planned for the rest of this year and also next year.

This is where the Tourism Authority of Thailand excels – marketing Thailand to Thais.

“TAT will put on many events and activities to encourage local people to travel across regions in the country,” Prakit said.

Local tourists in the back of pick-up trucks spending little or no money.

TAT would work with private organisations like the Tourism Council of Thailand as well as local communities to create activities to lure travellers.

No, they won’t.  The Government does not get along with the private sector.

TAT projects total arrivals climbing to more than 19 million next year, up from the forecast of 17 million this year.

More pipe dreams.  My buddy, George at Canary Travel, turned me on to a tweeter over on twitter.com that works for the Airports of Thailand (AOT) and posted this to my Facebook Wall:

Larry, this should interest you..7/09/11 ..BKK movements ;Passenger arr 51,559 dep 54,248 ; Aircraft arr 378 dep 384 ; Freight arr 1,670 tons dep 2,071 tons…..6/09/11 BKK movements ;Passenger arr 51,513 dep 56,845 ; Aircraft arr 385 dep 384 ; Freight arr 1,307 tons dep 1,897 tons..follow on Twitter narongchai
@narongchaiAOT

Looking at these numbers, approximately 50,000 passengers arrive in Bangkok daily which works out to about 1.5 million per month.  This would bring the annual total to 18 million arrivals.  But, how many are businessmen and not tourists?  How many are local Thais returning home from holiday?  How many are transit passengers?

I will be following narongchai on Twitter to see if he posts monthly totals and any breakdowns of passengers.

The Yingluck Shinawatra government has vowed to use The Miracle Years of Amazing Thailand campaign to double arrivals and income.

No.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports came up with that ridiculous slogan.  It will take a bunch of miracles to double triple arrivals.

The government wants to see 30 million arrivals per year by 2014 while income from domestic and international markets would reach Bt2 trillion per year.

There you have it – the Tourism Authority of Thailand can Name That Tune Name The Year That Thailand Gets 30 Million Tourist Arrivals in 3 notes.

Tags: amazing thaialnd Ministry of Tourism and Sports miracle thailand name that tune shinawatra TAT tourism authority of thailand yingluck