The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) must believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny if it believes the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

An Article in TTR Weekly, Tourism will fast track recovery, the Tourism Council of Thailand believes that tourism will make a huge comeback in Thailand and save the economy.  The problem is that the TCT is relying on numbers from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

BBQ Fish

TCT vice president, Pornthip Hirunkate, came up with some pie-in-the-sky predictions after listening to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Tourism Council of Thailand believes tourism will comeback fast and play a vital role in getting the country’s economy back on track.

Fast?  No way.  The tourists that were going to come to Thailand in October, November and December have already changed their plans and gone elsewhere.

On the sidelines of the Tourism Authority of Thailand flood briefing, Wednesday, TCT vice president, Pornthip Hirunkate said she was confident that tourism could earn the kind of revenue to fast track economic recovery.

Not anymore – with the floods and the upcoming riots after former Prime Minister and fugitive from the Thai law, Thaksin Shinawatra, returns to Thailand in December, no tourists will want to visit.

“Thailand will need at least Bt8 billion to restore infrastructure,” said Ms Pornthip, noting tourism could earn as much as Bt1 trillion if the government ensures the business environment was stable.

Thailand will need a hell of a lot more than 8 Billion Baht to repair/rebuild/start/create infrastructure.  And, the number 1 Trillion Baht is ridiculous as it is derived from false numbers from Thai Government Agencies who have absolutely no way of knowing how much money foreign or domestic tourists spend.

All association representatives attending the update agreed tourism would recover quickly as  the country was dealing with a natural disaster rather than political or security related crisis that undermined confidence in stability.

HAHAHA – yes it was a natural disaster that grew into a total fiasco due to Thai Government incompetence.  No one anywhere has any confidence in the Thai Government.  Plus, the protests have already started in the Thaksin amnesty issue.  So, get ready for a political crisis way bigger than the riots in 2010.

“ But we have to make sure flood updates are accurate so overseas markets will have confidence to support our tourism industry,” said Ms Pornthip.

This is impossible according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, Suraphon Svetasreni, who stated in a separate article at the TTR Weekly, Bangkok loses November Bookings, that his higher-ups in the Thai Government censor his reports and encourage him to lie:

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.

So, doing anything where you have to rely on “facts and figures” from the Tourism Authority of Thailand or any other Thai Government office is a complete waste of time.

“Public health is a major issue after a national disaster of this magnitude,” she added warning the industry to be aware of the challenges and ensure it had the facts to forward to business partners.

This has been glossed over by the Thai Government stating that there will be no flood-related diseases and that they had everything under control.  More lies from the Thai Government.

Thai Hotels Association reported that for the first half of November occupancy rates in Bangkok  hotels had dropped dramatically.

Since the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand came out and said that foreign tourist arrivals dropped 29%, and since he has to lie to make the numbers look good, the drop is probably closer to 50%.  And, the drop started in late September, through October, will continue for the rest of November and easily into December.

“For four to five-star hotels the average is around 30% for international guests in the inner city,” said THA representative Opas Netraumpai.

No hotel can survive on 30% occupancy rate in what is supposed to the start of High Season in Thailand.

However in the three-star and below categories, particularly for hotels outside of the flood zone, the picture was positive. Hotels  in Pattaya and Hua Hin were enjoying occupancies of 90% as city residents evacuated from their homes.

Right – at least this part is honest.  The occupancy rates are high because Bangkokians fled the city and had to stay somewhere – these are not from tourists.

TCT believes tourist arrival in 2011 will decline by 10% to around 18.5 million, down a 1 million from the original target set by Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

And the original number is about double reality.  Thailand will be lucky to see 9-10 million tourists this year.  Remember what the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said – “the content has to be positive even if the facts suggest differently”.

TAT said it was forecasting a fall-off of 300,000 tourists arriving through Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport if the capital remained flooded in December.

300,000 for November and another 300,000 for December sounds more like it and 300,000 is about 50% of real numbers of tourist arrivals.

According to the data provided by the Department of Tourism for the first 10 months of this year, Thailand welcomed 15,799,037 tourist arrivals, up 25.01% from 12,637,793 last year.

Pure fabrication as stated by the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand

Tags: bangkok department of tourism floods hua hin Ministry of Tourism and Sports mots pattaya TAT tha thai hotels association tourism authority of thailand tourism council of thailand