Interview Yuthasak Supasorn, Director Tourism Authority of Thailand
The director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Yuthasak Supasorn, has headed this marketing agency since September 2015. At the end of September this year, he renewed his contract for a second four-year term.
On the occasion of TAT's 60th anniversary in 2020, TTR Weekly asked him a number of questions about the highlights of his first term and the route being taken to further develop tourism to Thailand and adapt it to current demands of responsible and sustainable tourism.
I quote a few excerpts from this lengthy interview, which you can read in its entirety at: www.ttrweekly.com/
The success of the first term
Since I started working, the number of visitors has increased from 24.8 million in 2014 to 38.1 million in 2018. This result is not only due to the activities of the TAT, but also to the support and cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, many other government agencies , the airports, the airlines and the business community. It's a collective success.
Today, we can all be proud of the fact that tourism accounts for 17,7% – or more than 3 trillion baht – of GDP. In 2018, the sector employed an estimated 4,26 million people, both directly and indirectly.
Development
Our overarching goal now is to balance marketing and management and put an equal focus on responsible and sustainable tourism. The 2020 Tourism Promotion Action Plan comprises six dimensions:
- Develop forms of community tourism and tourism products that have good potential to reach the right target markets.
- Promote quality tourism in conjunction with attracting visitors from new markets and encourage Thai tourists to travel domestically.
- Encourage the adoption of tourism standards to build trust and safety for tourists and tour operators.
- Create a network of partners for the development of sustainable tourism.
- Encourage tourism business operators to adopt technology and innovation to enhance tourism competitiveness.
- Develop a process within the TAT organization to create a culture of excellence and improve the ability of the workforce to cope with the changes.
Source: TTR Weekly
About this blogger
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Bert Gringhuis (1945), born and raised in Almelo in the beautiful Twente. Later lived for many years in Amsterdam and Alkmaar, working in export for various companies. I first came to Thailand in 1980 and immediately fell in love with the country. Been back many times since then and moved to Thailand after my (early) retirement as a widower. I have been living there for 22 years now with my somewhat younger Thai lady Poopae.
My first experiences in Thailand as a kind of newsletter sent to family, friends and acquaintances, which later appeared under the name Gringo on Thailandblog. Many, many articles followed those first stories and that has grown into an almost daily hobby.
In the Netherlands still an avid footballer and football referee, but the years are starting to tell and in Thailand still avid, but the pool billiards is really of inferior quality, ha ha!
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This is not an interview, this is just a list of topics that still need to be done.
What interests everyone is what the good good man will do about the declining tourism, and the economic prospects are not something to ignore because of the high exchange rate of the bath.
I miss point 7 : devalue the baht.
How do you do that ? I do know a method, for example, reduce tourism by 10 million, then there will be less demand for the baht. Or prohibit investments and investments from abroad, then there will be no demand for baht and the baht will fall. Both are bad for the economy, but yes, the complainant has no insight into this and he/she gets more baht for his own currency. There are hardly any other ways because the exchange rate is determined by transactions with other currencies.
I fall off my chair when I read posts like this! It provides a good insight into the thinking capacity and sense of reality of the managing director. Assuming the interview is an exact representation of what was said and nothing has been omitted or changed by TTR Weekly.
I also read the article from TTR Weekly, but even then the number of tourists says nothing about how tourism is doing. It is, of course, about how much money the tourists bring in and what they keep. Perhaps fewer tourists brought in more money in previous years.
The number of people working in the sector is also meaningless. Anyone who knows Thailand a little knows that having as many employees as possible seems to be the number 1 business objective and is secondary to making a profit.
For example, a few days ago I read a similar piece on Thailandblog about the president of Thai Airways. This stated that more than 20 airlines had recently gone bankrupt and that there was really a lot of competition. As a result, the 10,91 billion bath loss in the first 9 months of this year was actually the most normal thing in the world.
I can tell you that if I had gotten a bad grade at school before, I got a slap in the face and if I dared to say that Kees had done much worse, I got another one.
I didn't have to look at the worst boys in the class, but at the best.
And now both over the knee Yuthasak and Sumeth for a good spanking.
Right in the dead end of this government: vague plans devised behind an expensive desk, but not a single concrete step on how to realize this.
Mr supasorn wants to promote tourism, good thing,
But who are those quality tourists,
Maybe to promote tourism make the visa requirements a bit less complicated,
And not like introducing new rules in recent years, which makes you feel like they are
Don't want us anymore
Just read on the blog someone moved to Cambodia , who follows