Ministry wants fast response squad

Ministry of Tourism and Sports, reported Wednesday, that it wants to establish a one-stop service or a mobile fast-response squad to tackle crime related problems that involve foreign tourists. Ministry of Tourism and Sports deputy permanent-secretary, Thanitta Savetsila Maneechote, raised the proposal during a brainstorming workshop, organised by the Senate’s tourism committee, to study ways to increase efficiency when addressing complaints from tourists.

The ministry acknowledged it needs to get up to speed on delivering solutions and intends to establish a centre that could deal with problems “efficiently and swiftly.” “One solution would be a ‘one-stop service’ that tourists could contact and we have also proposed a mobile unit that would immediately go to the place where the problem occurred to reduce the impact as early as possible.”

Ms Thanittha added that delivering efficiency and speed to solve problems related to tourists was essential. “One of the issues relates to our tourist police. They have no authority to interrogate though they can arrest a suspect. “The case must be forwarded to a local police station and tourists may not be able to stay in the country long enough to see a complaint through to a conclusion. They have to return home and if the case goes to a court, the process is even longer.”

The Office of the Consumer Protection Board slammed the country’s “bureaucratic system” that it claimed was too complicated. It believes tourists cannot find the right channel to complain and see a satisfactory outcome. They are not given enough protection under consumer law. Ms Thanittha added that complaints from tourists represented only 0.478%, or 66,920 cases a year of 14 million visitors.

“But it is worrisome and complaints are about poor quality of tours that fall short of the advertised content; jewelry purchases; illegal taxi and vans involved in robberies and zero dollar tours. These issues seriously hurt the image of the country and it will drive away tourists to visit other countries instead.” The workshop was attended by the Office of the Consumer Protection Board, Tourist Police, Tourism Authority of Thailand as well as representatives from tourism’s private sector.

Source=ttrweekly