The Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS), the head Thai Government Agency for tourism and over the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) may get a new Minister.  Hopefully, he is not as clueless as the current Minister.

Political jockeying has already started only 1 day after the Thai election and the Tourism Authority of Thailand may find it has a new boss.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Sai Kaew Beach

Currently, the Chart Thai Pattana Party is in charge of Tourism in Thailand and they are doing a piss-poor job at it no matter what the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand says.

Chart Thai Pattana wants to hold on to this prestigious position for one reason only – a 5.5 BILLION Baht annual budget.  Very easy to line one’s pockets with a budget that HUGE.

From an article in The Nation, Party wants to keep tourism, here is what Chart Thai Pattana plans to do if they remain in power:

If the Chart Thai Pattana Party stays in control of tourism, it will continue its policies including the development of human resources, suppression of tourist scams, crackdown on unregistered tourist guides and improvement of airport services.

Considering that the Chart Thai Pattana Party has not done any of this over the past 3-4 years, why should we believe that they will do it in the future.  Tourism staff at the Tourism Authority of Thailand are worthless knowing only how to copy and paste other people’s photos and post them to their Amazing Thailand and Sukjai Thailand Facebook pages.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand only caters to local Thais and this can be seen by most of their web sites and Facebook pages being only in the Thai language.

Tourist Scams still abound – nothing at all has been done to stop them especially at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, and the jet ski scams in Pattaya and Phuket.

Unregistered tour guides are in the thousands, and again, nothing has been done in the past.

Airport services, especially Immigration, are a painful experience – entering or departing the country.  The taxi mafia eagerly awaits unsuspecting tourists and nothing at all is done to control this.

My thoughts – Chart Thai Pattana should get the boot. Let someone else have a chance and see if they fuck up tourism as much as the other guys.

The front runner to take this lucrative post away from Chart Thai Pattana is the Pheu Thai Party.  This is the party that won the election and is led by ex-Prime Minister and fugitive from the law’s little sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

If Pheu Thai takes over the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the first thing they should do is fire the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand or at least force him to show where he gets his tourist arrival and how much they spent numbers from.

But, no.  The Nation has just regurgitated reiterated what the Pheu Thai Party told the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Private tourism sector prior to the election:

Here is the new BIG plan for the future of tourism in Thailand that I am sure the Tourism Authority of Thailand will fuck up:

the party wants to promote Thailand as the world’s best destination for beaches, religious activities and long stays for foreigners.

It aims to boost arrivals from 15 million to 30 million tourists and domestic tourism to 60 million people.

The party plans to build convention centres in the provinces and elevate Pattaya’s status to a tourism hub.

It will recruit Thai restaurants overseas to act as agents to highlight Thai tourism.

It will facilitate movie shooting in Thailand and organise big events and contests all year around.

It will reshuffle management at the Tourism and Sports Ministry, push Koh Chang as a quality, world-class destination, open more diving centres and engage a specialty consulting company to help run tourism.

Point one – I will agree on the religious activity hub as long as the Tourism Authority of Thailand promotes Buddhism as a whole and doesn’t single out any one temple to go to.  Once the beaches are rid of trash and raw sewage, this might work – but lots of education for the hotel owners and beach vendors explaining that there has to be a plan for the future.  No one wants to stay for a long time if they continue to be scammed at the beaches and pestered by beach vendors every 10 seconds.  But, this is Thailand and the Tourism Authority of Thailand doesn’t like foreigners, so they just gear everything for local Thais.

Point two – Read my lips.  There were not 15 million tourist arrivals in Thailand last year.  There will not be 16.5 million tourist arrivals in 2011.  And, there will not be 19.5 million tourist arrivals in 2012.  These numbers are pure fabrications by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  Read the MasterCard annual report that says Thailand had 10.5 million tourists in 2010 and will have approximately 11.5 million in 2011.

Point three – Convention centers cost big bucks to build and the initial report I read was to build these outside of Bangkok to lure tourists to other locations.  I can’t see it happening – can only only see a scandal over the construction costs.  Pattaya as a tourism hub?  For who – whoremongers?  The beach at Pattaya is all but gone and desperate measures are underway to try to repair it, but I think it is too late.  The Mayor spent millions of dollars to install traffic lights at zebra crossings on Beach Road and all the Thai motorcyclists, taxi and baht bus drivers totally ignore them.  Just waiting for some poor, unsuspecting tourist to get run over and killed.

Point four – Recruiting Thai restaurants overseas to promote Thailand is one of the dumbest ideas yet.  Most “Thai” restaurants are not even run by Thais.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand has offices overseas and that should be their job – promoting Thailand – but the Tourism Authority of Thailand does not like foreigners.

Point five – Movies are a good idea and one that is already in place so nothing new there.  Big events and contests – like the World’s largest outdoor water gun fight in Bangkok or the transvestite beauty contest in Pattaya?  The Tourism Authority of Thailand should be promoting things like the Silk Festival in Khon Kaen, Rocket Festivals throughout Isaan, Buddhist holy day rituals, and other events that are related to Thai culture.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand needs to understand that they need to market to foreigners and Thais – not just Thais.  Events, like the BIG SALE going on in Bangkok now and other BIG SALES that are only promoted in Bangkok do nothing for the foreign tourist markets.  They only benefit the elite Bangkokians.  Why not have them online so all can participate?

Point six – Reshuffling management always happens after an election.  Just means moving your buddies into more lucrative positions where they can skim more money.  If the Tourism Authority of Thailand is going to promote Koh Chang as a quality, world class destination, it will soon go the way of Phuket, the other island that the Tourism Authority of Thailand promoted as a quality, world class destination – down the drain.  Diving is already trashed over here with many sites closed due to coral bleaching and more sites ruined due to lack of planning on the part of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  Sustainable tourism is talked about a lot, but nothing is ever done.  Thais only worry about today, and don’t give a shit about tomorrow.

Point seven – Since the above paragraph was getting too long, the part about hiring a specialty consulting company to run tourism may be a good idea if those that have to do what the consulting company says follow instructions.  Most likely, no one at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Tourism Authority of Thailand will listen and they will continue to lie and fabricate numbers and only cater to Thais.

So, it looks like no matter who winds up being in charge, it will be business as usual for the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

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