PM asks TAT for a game plan
August 14, 2009 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
Thailand’s Prime Minister, Abisit Vejjajiva, told travel agents, yesterday, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has two weeks to present a revised marketing and public relations strategy.
He assured travel agents the government would not neglect the industry and was prepared to ease rules to allow more companies to apply for low-interest loans.
Speaking to 1,000 representatives from the travel industry, gathered at the Dusit Thani Hotel, the Prime Minister said he had ordered the Tourism Authority of Thailand to present a revised marketing and public relations strategy within two weeks to stimulate recovery in the fourth quarter.
Yesterday’s event was organised by the Federation of Thai Travel Associations, which has challenged the government to reveal a concrete plan to revive tourism and assist travel related companies.
“In the circumstances, we may not be able to spend billions on advertising projects,” Mr Abisit told the audience. “But we should be looking at specific channels such as local media in specific overseas markets that can help us target growth.
“We also need to co-operate with overseas governments, or overseas airline alliances, to sign MoUs to jointly improve tourist arrivals.”
Mr Abisit said the country should be able to “attract at least 11 million arrivals, based on the report from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, which showed 5.6 million arrivals in the first five months of this year.”
He believes the second half of the year will perform better, a view reflected by private sector associations that claim the last quarter could see substantial gains.
The TAT had earlier estimated 2009 could generate 14 million arrivals.
“The government will not overlook the travel industry’s problem and will follow up all policies and measures that have been set out with reference to tourism,” the Prime Minister promised.
He also acknowledged that rules for applying for a SME loan may need to be eased dramatically to allow more companies to benefit.
“We have discussed with the Minister of Finance, Kobsak Sapavasu, and financial institutions to relax rules for tourism related companies, especially for those that have been running into difficulties since the airports closed last year.”
He reported that around 3,000 companies applied for a special Bt5 million loan. So far, financial institutions has accepted 1,700 applications and approved loans for 1,000 applications, while 300 companies have already taken the loan.
“We cannot count on a miracle that the economy will just suddenly revive, but the government will support tour operators in every way, to make sure they are competitive and ready to act when the global economy revives.”
Executives attending the event were members of Fetta which represents eight travel associations: Association of Thai Travel Agents; Thai Hotels Association; Thai Travel Agents Association; Association of Domestic Travel; Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association; Thai Transport Operators Association; Thai-Japan Tourist Association; and Thai Chinese Tourism Alliance.
Here is my ( humble ) take on that “Miracle Meeting ” !
10 questions everybody would have liked to ask the PM, but nobody dared ( or wasn’t allowed …….. ) to raise :
1. Who will be the new TAT Governor and when ?
2. Who will be the new TCEB President and when ?
3. Why can’t the TAT and the MoT not work together harmoniously ?
4. How can we stop all Travel Associations publicly complaining so destructively ?
5. What should we all do to start implementing constructive reputation management ?
6. What new tourism product development should be considered, without falling in the corruption traps ?
7. What about refocusing TG as leading tourism product and developer ?
8. Why do you think the leading tourism expatriate managers were not present today ?
9. Why can’t we all work for Thailand, instead of waiting for Thailand to work for us ?
10. What must we do together now to bring about the ” miracle ” ourselves ?
In the meantime, as always,
Winningly yours,
Bert ” Bow-Thai ” van Walbeek,
The Winning Edge.
Everyone in the tourism industry does their best to attract the highest number of tourists to our country. Healing Thailand’s tourism depends mostly on our internal situation. All of us hope for a stable and normal situation in our country. From now on, and with proper marketing, by using our limited budget wisely without political interference, we could have the confdence to believe that the number of international visitors will gradually return to what we used to have.
Tourism is different from production and marketing of tangible products that we can export or sell to consumers. If they like the products they will buy them immediately. The process involved in renewing confidence in our travel products will take far more time.
What will happen in our country from now on? That depends on the commitment of thoes in the travel business and our willingness to act in unison. We do not need to have confrontation between the government and the opposition in government, or pressure groups from the different regions in our country. We need to see our government to do its work successfully, while the government should not use strong words that might create confrontation among the different groups. The kind of confrontation we witnessed in 2008 only makes international tourists feel hesitant and unsecure about their decisions to visit Thailand. Our tourism marketing now needs internal security building support most of all.