Published on June 27, 2005

The Commerce Ministry vice minister in charge of tourism development has proposed a bold long-term restructuring plan to breathe new life into the ailing tourism industry.

Suvit Maesincee said his plan for eight building blocks with a mix of tourism marketing strategies would be proposed to the Public Sector Development Commission by the end of the month.

He unveiled the plan at a seminar on the restructuring of the tourism industry hosted by Thai-language business daily Krungthep Turakij.

The tourism industry as a whole should be restructured, he said, not just tourism agencies such as the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the Tourism and Sports Ministry.

Suvit said the eight building blocks consisted of four dimensions of outside blocks – tourism policy, tourism intelligence, tourism standards and tourism infrastructure – and four dimensions of inside blocks: destination development, product development, entrepreneur development and market development.

The blocks could in turn create a wide-ranging tourism marketing mix that would be more specialised.

By dividing tourism into segments such as beach, city, activity-oriented and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions), the country will be able to design each development of destination, product, entrepreneur and market to fit every tourism type.

Suvit was initially charged with proposing a restructuring plan for tourism regulatory organisations such as the TAT and the Tourism and Sports Ministry.

“I have done things beyond what I was assigned to do, but that’s good for Thailand’s future tourism development.”

He said the plan was his idea, but its implementation will depend on the Public Sector Development Commission. If approved, the plan will be proposed to Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jutusripitak and then the Cabinet.

“If the private sector agrees to the plan as a national strategy, it will be implemented later,” Suvit said, adding that it could take five years to achieve the goal of successfully restructuring the tourism industry.

The building blocks will be created to redefine the position of Thai tourism, as well as the role and responsibilities of agencies with a stake in the industry.

Drastic measures are needed, Suvit said, because the six southern provinces hit by December’s devastating tsunami had not yet recovered.

If long-term strategies are not implemented, the Kingdom could lose its share of tourists to more attractive regional destinations, he added.

Hong Kong has the new Disneyland, he said, and places like Singapore and Dubai also have strong tourism attractions.

Apart from launching an array of tourism campaigns and promotions to boost tourism spending in the short term, Thailand needs to implement a long-term policy to sustain tourism growth, Suvit said.

By doing it this way, the government can design intelligence to oversee each segment, such as city destinations, beach destinations, activity-oriented and MICE. The government can also expand other tourism-related agendas such as quality standards, education and infrastructure.

But before implementing such a marketing mix, Thailand must reverse its thinking on the positioning of tourism products and services. Suvit said the new way should start from outside to inside, not from inside to outside.

“We have to know global tourism trends before we can identify our competition and our target customers,” he said.

In other words, the Kingdom should know where the market is and then create products and services to serve the needs of that market. At the moment, we create products and services first, then we seek the market to sell them, he said.

According a report conducted by the TAT, Thailand is very strong in terms of beach tourism. But this segment is less profitable than the others. City, MICE and health tourism are the fastest-growing segments and will get a bigger slice of the US$10-billion (Bt410 billion) global tourism market in the next few years.

On the world stage, Thailand is not in the top 10 global destinations in terms of tourist arrivals. The country was number 20 in 1995 and improved to 17 in 2003. But it is still in the top three in the region. The Kingdom recorded $7.82 billion in tourism revenue with 10,082 tourist arrivals in 2003.

Private sector representatives at the seminar agreed with Suvit’s plan, but they said it would be difficult to make it effective.

ML Hathaijaok Kritakara, chairman of the executive committee of the Thai Hotels Association, said the restructuring plan could easily be a waste of time and money.

“This seems like we are driving a Rolls-Royce car to something at the market. If we drive a Toyota car, we can get the same result.”

He said Thailand should not waste time and money on a theory that has a minority proportion of roles in tourism development.

Massalin Sukpattanarakul, president of the Association of Domestic Travel, said the plan sounded great but the important thing was how the government would implement it.

In her experience, the government and the private sector have talked about the future of the tourism industry for a decade, but nothing has been done.

Both Apichart Sankary, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, and Danai Wansom, president and CEO of Aprime Hotels and Resorts, said the plan should be workable in the future but would be very complicated.

Danai said the private sector should improve itself to survive as local businesses will inevitably face an influx of foreign investments because of the implementation of free-trade pacts.

Chitvee Leelasiri, country manager of the International Air Transport Association, said Thailand would have to improve infrastructure for airlines and airports if the tourism industry were going to boost its revenue.

Auggaphol Brickshawana, director of TAT’s Policy and Planning Department, said the government faced a big challenge to prove that it could successfully implement the restructuring plan.

Sasithara Pichaichannarong, director-general of the Office of Tourism Development at the Tourism and Sports Ministry, said the office was in talks with the Board of Investment on privileges for five-star hotel developments to boost tourism income.

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation

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