Tourism soars, but let's not aim too high

Tourism soars, but let's not aim too high

Thais can afford to smile even more broadly when welcoming tourists this year _ the industry is booming.

Thai smiles are as famous as our sea, sand and sun.

The government has put in a tremendous effort to lure international tourists to the country in the hope we can earn even more income from tourism-related activities.

We may have to thank Lost in Thailand, a Chinese movie hit which was shot in the northern part of the country including Chiang Mai. It is believed the film has helped significantly boost the number of Chinese tourists.

This year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set a target to lure 24.5 million tourists, up from 19.09 million last year, and generate tourism-related revenue of 1.1 trillion baht, up from 734.5 billion baht.

The big target is for 2015. The Yingluck Shinawatra administration plans to welcome 30 million tourists and earn 2 trillion baht from tourism.

It's good to set higher targets every year as that reflects the continuing growth of the Thai tourism business.

However, the higher growth also brings problems to the industry. One major challenge is a serious shortage of staff working in many tourism organisations, especially hotels. The shortage occurs at many levels, from the front desk, room service and cleaning staff, to cooks and security guards.

With more tourists coming in, hoteliers need to hire more people to provide a quality service. A manpower shortage can be a disaster as service might not be as good and impressive as it should be.

Operators worry that if the quality of service does not meet expectations, tourists will not return.

Many people might have had a less than impressive experience with hotels in Western countries which normally employ fewer staff. Unlike here in Thailand, they can be very slow to deliver service.

I'm not sure whether such robust tourism growth is good for us or not but one thing we know is we often set targets too high without being aware of our own capacity.

The tourism industry is all about service. If its core element has problems, we will lose customers in the near term.

What we need now is the time to improve ourselves.

I think many hoteliers will agree with me that the Thai tourism industry does not need to grow enormously every year.

Tourism operators should have some time to prepare themselves by strengthening their human resources and improving facilities to maintain the high standards of Thai hospitality.

Hotel operators should put more effort into enhancing manpower skills and repairing or renovating their hotels and facilities.

Moreover, the government, in particular the education sector, should play a bigger role in helping private tourism operators.

We should produce more graduates for the tourism industry and the government and the private sector must show that tourism-related careers can secure good incomes.

At the moment, many people working in the hotel industry may be unhappy with their salaries which do not reflect their hard work.

Some are paid the 300-baht minimum daily wage and tips can be inadequate.

There are complaints that some hoteliers have refused to pay new graduates the minimum salary of 15,000 baht a month, the amount assured by the Pheu Thai-led government. Many hoteliers claim that tips can make up for the lower payment. That's not fair, right?

This makes the staff shortage problem even more complicated. It makes it more difficult to get professional people to fill the jobs.

Anyway, I don't think the staff shortage problem is too hard to handle _ and solve _ if all those involved are sincere and think about the future.

Once we are well prepared, we can enjoy a big tourism boom. When we are ready, our growth will be solid and we can have sustainable tourism.

Let's forget about aiming too high for a while and take a serious look at ourselves and our quality _ the factor that every tourist looks at when deciding upon their destination.


Krissana Parnsoonthorn is deputy business editor, Bangkok Post.

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