Thailand lacks attractions

[FarangFarang]

Thailand lacks attractions

BANGKOK, 9 February 2012: Thailand needs to urgently strengthen its travel products by adding new attractions if it is to remain a major player in ASEAN.

Association of Thai Travel Agents president, Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, warned earlier this week that new tourism products were needed to raise Thailand competitiveness especially when ASEAN Economic Community arrives in 2015.

“The main selling points of Thailand are beaches and islands, and other countries in the region are promoting the identical experience,” he said.

“If we continue to sell the same old products then our position will be eroded.”

Thailand should have mega tourism attractions on the scale of Disneyland to encourage more tourist arrivals and revenue especially from markets like China and India.

Mr Sisdivachr praised the government’s miracle campaign, but noted like most of government’s efforts it was over a short period using a large budget.

“The Ministry of Tourism and Sports should now release a detailed three-to-five -year plan on how it intends to maintain its lead in the region.”

Thai Travel Agent Associations president and ATTA secretary, Charoen Wangananont agreed that the Miracle Thailand project was too short and needed to have a focus on encouraging investment in new attractions.

“If we want sustainable tourism development, the government should set out the blueprint and direction backing it with policies and incentives.”

Meanwhile, Thai-Japanese Tourism Association president, Anake Srishevachart, said tourism operators needed to find new tourist destinations to sell and link them to neighbouring countries.

“Many international tourists prefer to travel without using a tour operator. Last year, 80% of Japanese tourists to Thailand were independent travellers.”

He suggested that tour operators had to get ahead of the game to develop and sell new experiences.

Despite the comments and calls for action, none of the private sector leaders actually identified specific projects that could be built other than to hint that casinos have been considered.

Thailand is surrounded by neighbours who encourage casino investment.

http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2012/02/thailand-lacks-attractions/comment-page-1/

Geesh, how many more times are they going to have to hear the same message before they figure out that to remain competitive in the tourism market, they're going to need something more than temples and some beaches? Build a casino. Build an amusement park. Whatever. Just build something.

[Stramash]

Build it and they will come...

[Stramash]

Seriously though, agree totally. Also think there should be major investment in the existing heritage sites. Thailand has some great examples of these but they are nowhere near their full potential.

[Admin_2]

They should build a mega temple casino amusement park with wild animals dancing in cages.

Actually, I think cowboy has something like that already.

[Stramash]

They should build a mega temple casino amusement park with wild animals dancing in cages.

Actually, I think cowboy has something like that already.

Wat's (sic) the address again?

[FarangFarang]

Seriously though, agree totally. Also think there should be major investment in the existing heritage sites. Thailand has some great examples of these but they are nowhere near their full potential.

They really do need to figure something out with tourism. People just aren't going to pay Singapore or Hong Kong hotel prices and not expect something more to do than going to see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. I know a lot of people are against casinos but other countries in the region have made them work. Charge a joiner fee that's too high for the average local to keep them out of the casinos if that's what it takes. Or work on getting an amusement park or something.

[DANNO]

.....lacks... the "coffee-shops" of Amsterdam

[Stramash]

They really do need to figure something out with tourism. People just aren't going to pay Singapore or Hong Kong hotel prices and not expect something more to do than going to see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. I know a lot of people are against casinos but other countries in the region have made them work. Charge a joiner fee that's too high for the average local to keep them out of the casinos if that's what it takes. Or work on getting an amusement park or something.

Would need some really major inward investment, then where do you site the casino/amusement park? Personally I would say clean up the Pattaya/Jomtien area. Get rid of the sleaze and build a couple of casinos and aforementioned amusement park. At least with that location there is the infrastructure as far as hotels/ restaurants etc is concerned. But also invest in the traditional sites (Ayutthaya, Sukothai etc) - have modern visitor centres with all the multi media trimmings that will attract visitors too. Thailand is great for twin or triple centre holidays so that would work well.

[FarangFarang]

Would need some really major inward investment, then where do you site the casino/amusement park? Personally I would say clean up the Pattaya/Jomtien area. Get rid of the sleaze and build a couple of casinos and aforementioned amusement park. At least with that location there is the infrastructure as far as hotels/ restaurants etc is concerned. But also invest in the traditional sites (Ayutthaya, Sukothai etc) - have modern visitor centres with all the multi media trimmings that will attract visitors too. Thailand is great for twin or triple centre holidays so that would work well.

Agree on the twin or triple holiday center.

I also agree that it would involve a lot of investment. That leads me to believe it'll never happen. Everybody is still to focused on what color shirt you wear to take proactive measures that benefit everyone, not just your people.

The thing is that all of this stuff is cumulative. Right now Thailand is just barely waking up to the fact that they may not be the dominant country in the region in 10 years. Education is failing. Tourism is meeting competition. Infrastructure is failing. Foreign investment is looking elsewhere in the region.

When things start to unravel, you won't be able to just fix one thing. If Thailand had a robust infrastructure and they needed to add an amusement park, it could be done very rapidly. But they don't have a robust infrastructure. So they would have to overhaul the nation's infrastructure as well.

Or, foreign investment might start flowing to other countries in the region. You can't fix that by quickly improving the skill quality of the workers or bettering English skills. The laws against company and land ownership need adjusted. Infrastructure needs an overhaul.

So, when Thailand finally finds itself at the edge of the abyss, facing the decision to spend billions (maybe even trillions) of baht to impact something 5 or 10 years off (fixing infrastructure, building tourism attractions, etc) or spending a fraction of that buying votes and handing out some iPad knockoffs, you know what your local politicians are going to choose.

[koolbreez]

Thailand lacks the potential profits for any company to build a mega entertainment project tourists would pay to frequent. There is too much corruption, and government protectionism for serious investment projects for outsiders, and no one Thai has enough business sense to do it with tourists best interests in mind. Look what happened to the night safari in Chiang Mai, they also opened up an exotic animal meat restaurant right down the road. Both went bankrupt.

Major changes in the laws need to be made before anyone would even think of investing in Thailand's tourist industry. Governments don't make these kind of investments, they only provide the laws, and tax structure to make it feasable.

Foreign tour operators, or guides are prohibited, so no native English, or other foreign language guides that are needed. No land ownership for businesses, except in special industrial zones, then very limited. No complete ownership of a corporate business without 51% of the owners being Thai. Sure there are illegal ways around these, but mega builders don't violate the laws to do business long term. No stable government is a big inhibitor with any third world country. Disneyland doesn't build in third world countries on the speculation of change for the better, or on rented land.

These are the most prevelant barriers to tourist development in Thailand. No one internal knows what to develop, or how to do it, and no local money will be spent on development without clear favortism built into the licensing, and a monopoly established.

Thailand has what it needs for tourism to flourish if there was a stable government, and not a lone fugitive trying to create a dictatorship.

[Jos_38]

Well... I have been to dreamworld, and that is an OK park - it sure aint Disneyland, but for the family (i'm thinking my own) it's quite OK, Suan Siam the waterworld there, great place to go with the kids...

And cleaning up Pattaya and build a casino, will just bring back the sleeze, where the money is...

Around Pattaya is some things worth a visit, sanctuary of truth is one, nong nooch garden another...

And finally, the tourism of Thailand is not really homogenous mot of the tourist arrive from countries in the region, they may come here for other purposes than those who has been travelling halfway around the globe to get here...

In my opinion it really dosen't take a lot of investment to change the picture... Let Pattaya be Pattaya, with all the bells and whistles... And to get a south "hub" keep Phuket in the same state too...

Clean the beaches both places, every day, clean up Phukets infrastructure, insert songtaews as in Pattaya/Jomtien that goes around and around all day... at a low price... put amusements lie jetski and other waterplays into order, monopolize it and nationalize that business...

Make north Samui and Koh Pha Ngan to youth places, south Samui into family with smaller kids, south Phuket into retired persons resorts...

Expand the birdwatching tourism in Lake Songkhla (the only thing needed in my opinion is marketing in that case)...

For the north, marketing around the different king projects deep in the mountains, I have been many places in north where I didn't see any farang at all...

The different national parks could easily be a target for ecotourism, there is the soldiercamp inside Khao Yai, great place ready to use, for the more sporty tourist, and ofcause also the challange of challanges in Thailand - Phu Kra Deung...

For the archeological interested tourist, well make a deal with Cambodia, draw the damn line on the map, get back tourist to Khao Phra Viharn (I for my part think logically belonging to Thailand, but just make a deal) - not far from Khao Phra Viharn is a temple build of a couple of millions heineken (empty) bottles (clear Pattaya barstool target) Wat Laan Khuat... And also Phrasat Hin Phanom Rung in Buriram, Phi Mai in Khorat...

As mentioned Ayutthaya and Sukhuthai need marketing, and visitorscenters, but they do build new every year, I go both places every year, and it changes slow but steady...

Ancient City here in Bangkok, need some marketing, when I am there I see the typical tourbus with "follow the umbrella" Japanese tour... There is a hidden gem and quite a challange in Lop Buri, Khao Wong Phrachan with a staircase of 3,740 steps, around 600 meter high mountain...

Kanchanaburi has a lot of beautiful nature, and a couple of almost unknown BIG caves, that could easily be made into attractions...

Khao Sok national park in my opinion the most beautiful place in Thailand, and there are a lot... Sail in the morning on the lake watch the rainforest steam raise in the sun, and the upto 900 meter high vertical mountains, be lit from the suns first beams of light... Or walk the 4 km up the mountain to see the worlds largest flower Raffelsia, 1 meter in diameter... (problem is that it is in the middle of the rainforrest, and that don't really tollerate a LOT of tourism, but for the ecotourist...

I probably could go on all night, I believe the things are here, and I believe that the avarage family, young backpacker, sextourist, don't really care about Disneyland, they got it in Hong Kong, Shianghai, Tokyo, Paris, Orlando and Anaheim... And let's face it, there would be just around 55 million thais who would not be able to pay the entrance...

As for the Casino, well Laos has, Cambodia has... I am not aware of Myanmar and Vietnam, but for the highrollers it's a short trip to Macau, everything the heart desire... And I have heard enough stories about thai families with economic problems because of gambling to think it's a great idea to build casinos...

.another 10 satang...

[splinded]

Weldon, Good job all the above participants perform well and expose their ideas awesomely. Its clear me too, actually I was also looking for the same info so Its my goodness to have this .

Keep it up guys.

Cheer!