Beyond Khaosan: Will Thailand’s push for ‘high-value’ tourists finally pay off?

Excepting the possibility of natural or political disaster, 2013 will be a record year for tourism in Thailand.

Last year, the Kingdom hosted 22 million international visitors and, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), this year should improve upon that number, attracting upwards of 24 million tourists to the Kingdom.

While a large amount of this new traffic will come from China, and from repeat visits from European budget travelers, the TAT is hoping to attract a new type of visitor in 2014, one who might change Thailand’s reputation as the country of hangovers (and Hangovers), ladyboys and bucket drinks.

In a March 2013 statement to the National News Bureau of Thailand, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra urged the TAT to attract more “high-end visitors.” While she lauded the agency’s ability to increase the numbers of Thailand’s international visitors, she also urged it to increase the proportion of “high-end” tourists from 20 to 30%.

The TAT, in turn, has moved to capture this high-end segment. Based on the results of a 30,000-person survey, the Authority elected to focus on attracting wealthy visitors by touting Thailand’s possibilities as a destination for golf, wedding or eco-tourism.

“Our focus on niche markets is the way of the future,” writes a TAT representative. “We have to move beyond trying to generate quantitative, numerical growth.”

Conventional logic holds that more tourists equal more money, but in the case of big-spending visitors, more money may be available without putting a further strain on the country’s infrastructure. In her statement to the TAT, Yingluck pointed out chidingly that the average visitor to Thailand spends only THB3,000 (USD100) per day. The PM wants to improve on that number, but some tourism industry professionals question the motivation behind this shift, and doubt its essential practicality.

“I don’t think the TAT’s shift will do much one way or another,” writes Bill Barnett, Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks. “The private sector, and more importantly airlift, drive the market – not the public sector.”

In his analysis of the TAT’s push, Barnett identifies as a stumbling block something that resides on the minds of many hospitality industry professionals: Thailand’s tourism infrastructure.

As Barnett points out, Thailand’s nightly hotel rates rank among the world’s lowest. While this has played a significant part in making Thailand the globe’s premier tourism destination, it has also placed a cap on the amount of money hotel chains can make off of a bumper crop of visitors. Whether penny-pinching backpackers or “phantom big spenders” wind up flocking to the Kingdom, the windfall they represent will face limitations based simply on the market’s self-imposed ceiling.

Another problem plaguing Thailand’s tourist infrastructure, and a possible motivating factor behind this year’s push for “high-value” visitors, is the lack of air travel infrastructure.

In the July 12 issue of TTG Asia, Greg Lowe writes that Suvarnabhumi Airport is “currently operating well over its official capacity.” Though designed to service 45 million passengers per year, the airport is currently playing host to more than 52 million. Planned upgrades are expected to, at best, meet the current demand.

Without airport facilities large enough to accommodate more travelers, the Thai government may be looking to quality over quantity simply because it has no other choice.

According to Lowe, “this strategy is not new, as [the TAT] has tried this many times before.”

Indeed, the tourism industry professionals surveyed by Coconuts seemed to agree that Thailand’s recent attempts to secure high-value visitors presented but the latest iteration of a decades-long effort on the part of the government to secure more bang for its buck.

Displaying a trait endemic to Thai politics, the government has elected to reserve infrastructure investment as a last resort.

However, while those in the private sector doubt the public sector’s efficacy in halting or instigating trends, the TAT has nonetheless christened several programs aimed at gaining the attention of wealthy travelers.

Golf tours and wedding packages form the backbone of these incentives, while Thailand’s convenient (and conveniently cheap) opportunities for the performance of “voluntourism” earn space on the roster of incentives as well.

“We know that many very well-off people are now keen to give back to society,” writes a representative from the TAT. “That should certainly be something different.”

 



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