The road to 30 million what’s next?

BANGKOK Tourism is a popular topic this month with Thailand’s joint chamber of commerce and the Foreign Correspondents Club both fielding events.

The FCCT event passed this week, but there is still time to catch the next event, 23 November, organised by the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the joint chambers (JFCCT).

The Tourism lunch event will hosted by Stenden Thailand and Panyapiwat Institute of Management.

The topic is positive enough; “Road to 30 million visitors what’s next?. The 30 million arrivals tally is a magic marker that the country is likely to surpass by the close of the year.

Tourism analyst, John Koldowski, who heads the Service Innovation & Development unit, College of Innovation, Thammasat University, will attempt to map Thailand’s future in a complex tourism game.

He will have to take a leap of faith and assume the figures presented by government agencies on tourist arrivals and revenue are real and stand up to rudimentary scrutiny.

The rise in foreign visitors to Thailand is billed as the kingdom’s great success story over the last half century if you count heads. The count in 2015 fell just short of the 30 million mark. This year it is likely to reach 32 million.

But is the success story line real, and sustainable and does it benefit small enterprises and rural communities?  Or  as critics  sometimes claim this is an industry benefits just a few privileged cash rich corporations and family dynasties. It also lives off borrowed assets most of them national, and often leading to their wreck and ruin.

The challenge for all tourism events of this nature is to inject a dose of reality and critical assessment. Will the NCCT event be any different?

That remains to be seen who turns up and who is willing to speak the truth and look behind the numbers and power point presentations.

One of the truths is that tourism has been turned on its head. The distribution channels are different from a decade ago. Traditional media has been left to sulk. No longer respected it has been replaced by vibrant social media channels  that do present the truth and stark realities that impact on tourism almost as they happen and from a consumer’s perspective.

Tour operators are the next to go. Millennials will see to that and there is no end of disruptive technology waiting to make an impact on all sectors of travel and tourism.

Presenters at the NCCT event are going to tell us Thailand will welcome close to 50 million foreign visitors annually in the not so distant future.

It would be irresponsible of the event organisers and speakers if they fail to also present the downside of a national tourism policy that is caught up in a damaging numbers trap. There is another direction Thailand’s tourism has to take. Let’s hope speaker and panelists point to the way.

The organisers are hoping for a strong turnout from tourism executives.

The road to 30 million visitors, what’s next?

Wednesday, 23 November 1100 to 1330 at Panyapiwat Institute of Management, Chaengwattana Road, Bangkok.

Speaker: John Koldowski, Head of the Service Innovation & Development unit, College of Innovation, Thammasat University

Price: THB500, including buffet lunch

sourced:ttrweekly.com