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I would like to visit bangkok for my first trip and take local help of my thai friends, in all aspects. Please advise

Thais can afford to smile even more broadly when welcoming tourists this year _ the industry is booming. Thai smiles are as famous as our sea, sand and sun. The government has put in a tremendous effort to lure international tourists to the country in the hope we can earn even more income from tourism-related activities. We may have to thank Lost in Thailand, a Chinese movie hit which was shot in the northern part of the country including Chiang Mai. It is believed the film has helped significantly boost the number of Chinese tourists. This year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set a target to lure 24.5 million tourists, up from 19.09 million last year, and generate tourism-related revenue of 1.1 trillion baht, up from 734.5 billion baht. The big target is for 2015. The Yingluck Shinawatra administration plans to welcome 30 million tourists and earn 2 trillion baht from tourism. It’s good to set higher targets every year as that reflects the continuing growth of the Thai tourism business. However, the higher growth also brings problems to the industry. One major challenge is a serious shortage of staff working in many tourism organisations, especially hotels. The shortage occurs at many levels, from the front desk, room service and cleaning staff, to cooks and security guards. With more tourists coming in, hoteliers need to hire more people to provide a quality service. A manpower shortage can be a disaster as service might not be as good and impressive as it should be. Operators worry that if the quality of service does not meet expectations, tourists will not return. Many people might have had a less than impressive experience with hotels in Western countries which normally employ fewer staff. Unlike here in Thailand, they can be very slow to deliver service. I’m not sure whether such robust tourism growth is good for us or not but one thing we know is we often set targets too high without being aware of our own capacity. The tourism industry is all about service. If its core element has problems, we will lose customers in the near term. What we need now is the time to improve ourselves. I think many hoteliers will agree with me that the Thai tourism industry does not need to grow enormously every year. Tourism operators should have some time to prepare themselves by strengthening their human resources and improving facilities to maintain the high standards of Thai hospitality. Hotel operators should put more effort into enhancing manpower skills and repairing or renovating their hotels and facilities. Moreover, the government, in particular the education sector, should play a bigger role in helping private tourism operators. We should produce more graduates for the tourism industry and the government and the private sector must show that tourism-related careers can secure good incomes. At the moment, many people working in the hotel industry may be unhappy with their salaries which do not reflect their hard work. Some are paid the 300-baht minimum daily wage and tips can be inadequate. There are complaints that some hoteliers have refused to pay new graduates the minimum salary of 15,000 baht a month, the amount assured by the Pheu Thai-led government. Many hoteliers claim that tips can make up for the lower payment. That’s not fair, right? This makes the staff shortage problem even more complicated. It makes it more difficult to get professional people to fill the jobs. Anyway, I don’t think the staff shortage problem is too hard to handle _ and solve _ if all those involved are sincere and think about the future. Once we are well prepared, we can enjoy a big tourism boom. When we are ready, our growth will be solid and we can have sustainable tourism. Let’s forget about aiming too high for a while and take a serious look at ourselves and our quality _ the factor that every tourist looks at when deciding upon their destination. via Tourism soars, but let’s not aim too high | Bangkok Post: opinion.

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/05/27/bangkok-tops-list-of-worlds-tourist-destinations/ Bangkok has emerged as the world’s top tourist destination, with 15.98 million visitors projected to descend in Thailand’s capital city this year, according to the third annual Global Destination Cities Index released by MasterCard MA +10.28%on Monday. Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol/The Wall Street JournalFrancoise (right) and Caroline Lledo, a mother and a daughter visiting Bangkok from France, said they enjoy the city’s shopping. Based on data MasterCard collected from governments, central banks, related public agencies and airlines so far this year, the projection for the entire year says Bangkok is surpassing London, the previous holder of the top place, by a very narrow margin. Monday’s report marked the first time any Asian city has been projected to be the top-ranked tourist destination. London came in second, with 15.96 million visitors expected in 2013, and Paris, third, with 13.92 million visitors. MasterCard looked at 132 cities. Other Asian cities that made it to the Top-20 Global Destination Cities in 2013 include Singapore at number four, with 11.75 million visitors; Kuala Lumpur at number eight, with 9.2 million visitors; Hong Kong at number nine, with 8.72 million visitors; Seoul at number 11, with 8.19 million visitors; Shanghai at number 14, with 6.5 million visitors, Tokyo at number 16, with 5.8 million visitors, and Taipei, with 5.19 million visitors. The study found that Bangkok is experiencing a large increase in its number of tourists in 2013, up 9.8% from 2009. That compares to New York’s increase at 5.0% and London’s at 3.8%. Paris, meanwhile, saw a small dip in its number of tourists (negative 0.7%). Caroline Lledo, who was visiting with her mother from France, said Thailand has many offerings. “We like culture and the people are so nice. We also love shopping here,” Ms. Lledo said. Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesWat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram or Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok MasterCard Worldwide’s global economic adviser Yuwa Hedrick-Wong cited overall value for money spent for why Bangkok is attractive. That is true for Thailand overall as well. However, in terms of visitor spending, Bangkok is projected to bring in a total of US$14.3 billion dollars and is ranked at fourth this year, while New York continues to be the top city, where visitors will spend around $18.6 billion dollars in 2013. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) adviser Suwanchai Ritthirak cited official data in saying that each foreign visitor spends an average of 9.6 days and 4,100 baht (about US$141.50) in the country. Therefore, to boost Bangkok’s ranking, more needs to be done to increase either or both factor. Asia-Pacific destinations have outperformed cities in the other parts of the globe, said Mr. Hedrick-Wong. Looking at the past five years, he predicted that Asia will likely continue to see a boost in the number of tourists. Not only will more international visitors visit the region, but more Asians will be traveling to cities beyond their own countries.

When it comes to the public image of the tourism industry in Thailand, you would think that anyone working in that sector would do their best to leave a good impression with tourists. After all, it is their future. No tourists coming to Thailand means no more work for them. When is a Tourist Office not a Tourist Office?

hi there people, This is my first post & if its in the wrong area, please move it to right forum. I'm planning to visit Thailand in June & plan to stay there for about 2 months, I'll be shuttling in & out of Thai during my stay. I'm looking for 1 bedroom studio apartment in Pattaya. I tried searching (Google), sent emails to the ads but kinda vain. Any inputs shall be appreciated. regards, Sam

Interesting article as Macau is now the #1 gambling destination in the world and Singapore is #2 (with Las Vegas being #3). Seeing the huge cash people are willing to spend now the amusement parks are lining up to build family oriented theme parks. Will Thailand wake up and get in on the tourism shift or will it be too busy deciding which color of shirt to wear and running "Amazing Thailand" commercials in India to take notice? http://calvinayre.com/2011/07/28/business/theme-park-designers-follow-casino-companies-to-asia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

http://vimeo.com/25576589 Song:Who am i - Animatrix Mix-Peace Orchestra, Peter Kruder Camera: Canon 7D Lenses: Tokina 11-16, Canon 35,50,85mm Editing and color correction: Final Cut Pro, Looks Title: Shine-o-text

If you haven't seen this and you're looking for a good laugh - or to get angry enough to yell at your computer - you should really find a torrent and download this. As is all too common in these sappy documentaries, young Stacey comes to Thailand and thinks she can change the world in a week. Her first stop is the Ban Thai resort in Phuket where she claims that a room only costs 30 quid a night. Unfortunately the internet exists and we can check prices for ourselves and see that a basic room starts at 6,500 baht a night and suites go for 60,000 baht a night (with a 1500 baht surcharge on all rooms for peak season). But her fantasy views of Thailand don't end there. When she works as a chambermaid we get to see the living conditions of the staff. They are given free food and lodging at a dorm and she hears the heartbreaking tale of one maid who claims she hasn't been able to go home to visit her children in 2 years?!?!? Fortunately, another maid lays some balance and says that she sees her children about twice a month. According to Stacey this could all be remedied if the hotel allowed the staff to have their families live in the dorm as well. And she goes right off to the manager of the hotel and explains her brilliant plan. The manager tells her they might consider it in the future and she's off having solved her first problem. She also begs tourists to leave 50 or 100 baht a day tip for the chambermaids who clean 14 rooms a day each. That would mean a chambermaid, with little or no education or job skills, would be making between 16,800 - 33,600 a month just in tips. Why get an education when you can make a killing being a chambermaid? I'm not saying that you shouldn't leave a tip for good service or whatever or that the life of a chambermaid is easy but cleaning hotel rooms is about the lowest job in every society around the world. She could have stayed home in London and done a documentary on how shitty the life is of a British chambermaid. But to suggest that you tip them so they can make 3x the average wage of other workers is just stupid. What about the clerk at 7-11? Here's 100 baht, darling. I know you don't make much. Oh, and you, Mr. noodles dude, here's a 100 baht because I know you're poor. Where's the end of it? Tip everyone everywhere you go that isn't making a great salary or has some financial hardships? Should they give us our money at the exchange booths in 100 baht bills so we can walk around Thailand slapping a 100 baht on everyone we come across? Grrrrrr . . . just watch it. It's good for a laugh.