Government urged to improve standards
A poll by the Tourism Authority
of Thailand (TAT) found that more than half of tourism operators were not ready
to deal with the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
The agency hired the Thai Chamber
of Commerce and the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) to gather
information from 400 tourism operators from Sept 30 to Oct 7.
Some 45.6% of respondents said
Thailand was not prepared to deal with full liberalisation of the Asean market
in 2015, while 58.4% said their businesses were modestly ready for AEC and
27.5% said they were ready.
About 52.7% were confident the
AEC would create opportunities for Thai tourism, but 17.3% believed it would
create problems such as high competition and a lack of a high-quality
workforce.
An encouraging 47% said tourist
arrivals and revenue would increase by 2015, but 14.57% said their businesses
would be the same.
In Asean, Thailand is ranked
first for people's friendliness and value for money. It is among the top three
for natural and historical attractions, services, transport, shopping, hotels
and communications. But it is fifth for safety and ninth for regulations
facilitating the tourism industry.
In addition, 31.9% of respondents
said they wanted the government to seriously focus on tourism site development,
27.3% on PR and promotion, and 12% on security.
Thanavath Phonvichai,
vice-president for research at the UTCC's Center for Economic and Business
Forecasting, said the government should upgrade services and tourism standards
as well as connections.
Thailand is poor at integrating
tourism-related services and is behind many countries in the region including
Cambodia, he said.
Applications to many ministries
are required for tourism-related investments but other countries have one-stop
centres for such investments.
"If the situation continues,
Thailand will lose a growth opportunity and competitiveness," Mr Thanavath
said.
Pongsathorn Kessasamli, TAT's
deputy governor for policy and planning, said many organisations in the
government and private sectors are aware of the need to prepare for the AEC.
TAT has introduced its Thailand
and Beyond strategy to deal with high competition once the AEC is launched. The
strategy will promote Thailand and other countries in the region.
"We don't want to be the big
brother in Asean. We want to be a must-visit destination and generate more
tourism revenue," said Mr Pongsathorn.
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