Somsak Pureesrisak, the new tourism and sports minister, vowed to make the safety of tourists one of his priorities when he took up his position at the beginning of the month.
The former governor of Suphan Buri has his work cut out tackling this pressing issue. Not only is it a major concern among those in the tourism industry, but Somsak also has to make people know what his ministry is capable of.
According to a recent poll by the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce to find out which organisation should take responsibility for tourism, it might come as a surprise to the new minister to know that people thought issues related to the industry were the responsibility of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
Simply speaking, this implied that people were unaware of what the Tourism and Sports Ministry has been doing or were even unaware of its existence.
The research team conducted the survey among 1,200 people living in the Northeast (32.1%), the North (21.1%), the Central plains (16.6%), Bangkok and surrounding areas (16.4%) and the South (13.8%). Almost half of them earn 10,000-24,999 baht a month and about a third have a bachelor's degree.
About 30% of them think that Thailand was outstanding for culture, history and nature. These have always been our strong points. They also agreed that the tourism industry could maintain its steady growth if the country was politically stable, if we managed our natural resources well and also if we could handle and solve crimes against tourists.
They suggested that tourist safety was the top priority that authorities should seriously address, followed by concern over the lack of facilities at tourism destinations, a decline in tourism attractions nationwide and overcharging tourists.
When they were asked which organisation should take responsibility for tourists' safety, the top answer as the TAT. The second most common response was that they did not know who should take responsibility and the third answer was the Tourist Police Division. Concerning the issue of poor facilities at tourism destinations, such as a shortage of toilets, lack of direction signs or poor internet connection, about 30% of respondents said they did not know who should solve this problem, while 27.1% thought it was the role of the TAT and the third answer was that it was the duty of the Designated Areas for Sustainable for Tourism Administration (Dasta) operated under the Prime Minister's Office. Again, no one thought of the Tourism and Sports Ministry.
Furthermore, most respondents thought that the TAT should take care of protecting tourism destinations, while a few named Dasta and others did not know who should deal with this issue.
Overall, 10 issues related to the tourism industry were raised including scams, tourism policy, human resources, film industry promotion and statistics on domestic and international tourists.
And for all of these, the first organisation people thought of was the TAT, not the Tourism and Sports Ministry.
What a shame that the ministry, which was established in 2002, does not play a vital role in the country's tourism industry. It has failed to present itself and people are not aware of its existence.
One reason might be because the TAT has been around longer than the ministry and we are always hearing about their promotions and campaigns, to the point where we think anything related to tourism falls under the TAT's aegis.
That was true in the past. When the TAT was set up 54 years ago by the government of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat it was the only organisation handling every issue related to tourism, according to Pongsathorn Kessasamli, the TAT's deputy governor for Policy and Planning. But when the Tourism and Sports Ministry was established, the role of the TAT was reduced to only marketing and promoting tourism.
Other duties such as outlining a national tourism policy, developing new tourism destinations and human resources, as well as collecting data and forecasting inbound and outbound tourist figures, fall within the remit of the ministry.
Perhaps the ministry was too focused on sports in the past that it forgot that it has two aspects to take care of.
As the tourism industry contributes about 6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), Somsak should also show what the ministry can do and seriously commit to tackling the issue of tourist safety. Sooner or later we will know if the new minister's promise was genuine or merely lip service.
Karnjana Karnjanatawe is a travel writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.