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Chapter III - Bangkok’s City Branding Policy
Since 1998, Bangkok has been known as an important destination under the promotional campaignAmazing Thailand. During 2008 to 2018, this particular campaign is still being used by TAT (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2018). The capital city of Thailand plays a significant role in tourism, making it outstanding compared to other provinces. From 2012 to 2016, the international visitors of Bangkok accounted for 24.1 percent of the whole country’s. Bangkok’s international tourist arrival is at 36 percent, while most of the nearby provinces and the whole kingdom’s average arrivals are less than 30 percent. The only province close to Bangkok that has a similar percentage of foreigner visitor is Samutprakarn, where the Suvarnabhumi International Airport is located (Department of City Planning and Urban Development, 2016)
Figure 2: International Visitors in Bangkok and Other Provinces in Thailand from 2012 to 2016 (%)
Source: Department of City Planning and Urban Development, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Study of the Number of Tourist and Excursionist in Bangkok 2016, 2016.
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Figure 3: Thai and International Visitors in Thailand, Bangkok, and Nearby Provinces from 2012 to 2016 (%)
Source: Department of City Planning and Urban Development, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Study of the Number of Tourist and Excursionist in Bangkok 2016, 2016.
During a time period that this thesis aims to study, Bangkok’s tourism statistics could be sourced through the Intelligence Center under the supervision of TAT. The provided data does not include the 2008 and 2009, but we may assume that Bangkok’s tourism was influenced by the 2008 Financial Crisis as well as Thailand ( Figure 1) because Bangkok shares a big part of the country’s international visitor (Figure 2). Also, they have a similar ratio of international visitors (Figure 3).
To study Bangkok tourism in this particular time, it is important to know basic statistical data of total international visitor arrivals, international tourism receipts, international tourism receipts per capita expenditure per day, and average length of stay. Figures below show tourism statistics of Bangkok from 2010 to 2017.
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Figure 4: Bangkok International Visitor Arrivals 2010 - 2017
Source: TAT Intelligence Center. Tourist Statistics in Bangkok, 2018.
Figure 5: Bangkok International Tourism Receipts 2010 - 2017 (Million Baht)
Source: TAT Intelligence Center. Tourist Statistics in Bangkok, 2018.
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Figure 6: Bangkok International Tourism Receipts per Capita Expenditure per Day 2010 - 2017
Source: TAT Intelligence Center. Tourist Statistics in Bangkok, 2018.
Table 3: Bangkok International Tourism Average Length of Stay 2010 - 2017
Year Average
Length of Stay
2010 5.48
2011 4.95
2012 4.92
2013 4.86
2014 4.86
2015 4.46
2016 4.77
2017 4.77
Source: TAT Intelligence Center, “Tourist Statistics in Bangkok.” Tourist Statistics in Bangkok, 2018.
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Figure 4 and Figure 5 show that in 2014, international visitor arrivals and international tourism receipts decreased from the previous year. This is because there was a coup d’état in Thailand on May 22, 2014, as well as a financial crisis in Russia. While in 2016, the visitor arrivals decreased, tourism receipts increased considerably. It relates to the result on Figure 6 that tourism receipts per capita is growing every year. Less tourists seems to not affect Bangkok negatively when the receipts are getting higher.
Figure 6 and Table 3 emphasize the growth of the international tourists’ expenses. Even though tourists stay in Bangkok shorter than they did before, each of them spends more during their trip. The report states that international tourism receipts per capita expenditure per day in Bangkok, which was around 4,000 Baht and reached 5,000 Baht in 2016, is higher than the whole country’s that was around 3,000 Baht. Likewise, the average length of stay in Bangkok is longer than the average number of the whole country’s, which is around three days (Department of City Planning and Urban Development, 2016; TAT Intelligence Center, 2018).
Although the statistics cannot be seen as perfect due to the decrease of numbers in some particular points, the growth of Bangkok’s international tourism in general presents itself as a definite possibility. These numbers can be studied further together with the three levels of analysis below. By collecting and analyzing tourism laws, policies, and marketing plans, the background of these results would be revealed. They will help us to understand how Bangkok got itself back from the stagnation and kept growing as one of the top destinations in the world.
National Level
At the national level nowadays, the most significant official organization taking care of Thailand tourism is the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Established in 2002, the Ministry continued the mission of former tourism organizations. Under the power of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, there are two tourism-related offices: Department of Tourism as a public service, and Tourism Authority of Thailand as a state enterprise.
With reference to the Reorganization of Ministry, Sub-Ministry, and Department Act, B.E. 2545 (2002) Section 14 and Section 15, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports has the power to promote, support, and develop tourism industry and sports. The Department of Tourism’s
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mission was to develop tourist attractions and tourism services, as well as support tourism businesses and guides to be up to the standard. They are responsible for studying tourism industry statistics, creating plans related to national tourism industry based on these studies and impelling stakeholders to follow the plan (Office of the Council of State, 2002). TAT, on the other hand, based on the Tourism Authority of Thailand Act, B.E. 2522 (1979) Section 8 and Section 9, aims to support and promote Thailand’s tourism industry, provide convenience and safety to tourists, promote a better understanding between people and between countries by using tourism, and initiate tourism development to enhance tourism facilities (Office of the Council of State, 1979).
Apart from official organizations, there are also many laws related to the Thailand tourism industry. The three most important laws are the Tourism Authority of Thailand Act, B.E.
2522 (1979; edited 2007), the Tourism Council of Thailand Act, B.E. 2544 (2001), and the National Tourism Policy Act, B.E. 2551 (2008). They are distinguished from other laws because of the more significant scope that aims to control and supervise national tourism industry in general while others, for instance, Tourism Business and Guide Act, B.E. 2551 (2008), National Park Act, B.E. 2504 (1961), Immigration Act, B.E. 2522 (1979), or Archaeological Sites, Antiques, Art Objects and National Museums Act, B.E. 2504 (1961), were set to focus on particular issues. Therefore, the direction of Thailand tourism is broadly controlled by the enforcement of three acts above. All of these efforts show that the Thai government takes tourism as an important industry, although they also have many organizations and laws that causes redundancy and lacks unity in management.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand Act is the oldest tourism law still enforced. It was written in 1979 to establish TAT, set the agenda, power, management, source of income, and examination of the enterprise. In 2007, TAT direction was revised. Initially, TAT worked under the supervision of the cabinet and the prime minister. The new version of the act states that TAT would be under the supervision of the Minister of Tourism and Sports (Office of the Council of State, 1979).
While the Tourism Authority of Thailand Act set the state enterprise as the DMO, Tourism Council of Thailand Act pays more attention to tourism entrepreneurs in Thailand. It
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established the Tourism Council of Thailand to represent tourism entrepreneurs’ interest and become a coordinator between the public sector and the private sector or among each private sector. In Section 6, Tourism Council of Thailand also aims to control the members to run business ethically, support and publish academic research and advise the cabinet on the issues related to the tourism industry, and also protect member’s interest within the tourism industry (Office of the Council of State, 2001). This act is the first attempt to allow entrepreneurs to protect their interests and participate in tourism policy legislation. Since then, those organizations have been working together on planning, supporting, developing, and protecting the Thailand tourism industry and other tourism-related environments.
Until 2008, the cabinet regarded national tourism tasks as disrupted because there were too many organizations taking care of it and most of them lacked cooperation. Thus, the directions of Thailand tourism were not in unity and caused declining tourist attractions. This situation may affect the country in the long term in terms of economics, culture, and environment and hinder the development of Thailand’s tourism. To solve this problem, the Thai government at that time decided to enact the National Tourism Policy Act, B.E. 2551. According to Section 5 of the act, there shall be a National Tourism Policy Committee to have at least four conferences in a year to create and present a National Tourism Development Plan to the cabinet. The plan must clearly define how to manage and develop national tourism, the cooperation of related agencies, and operating time. Also, this plan could be flexible if there were shifts of global events or any factors that might affect national tourism (Office of the Council of State; 2008).
Another important thing that comes with this act is the Tourism Development Zone. It is to develop the tourism industry and to balance it with community development in particular potential areas. From strengthening local resource and product management to promoting local interests and linking them to the tourism industry, Tourism Development Zone aims to build more relationships between official organizations and local communities (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2015). Nonetheless, it was not until 2015 that the Tourism Development Zone was set following the Thailand Tourism Strategy 2015 - 2017 by the Ministry of Tourism and Sport. The document states that there were many limitations that cannot be overcome due to the first
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National Tourism Development Plan. Those limitations include that there was not the so-called Tourism Development Zone yet (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2015).
The National Tourism Development Plan
The National Tourism Development Plan is the core of Thailand tourism policy. It is crucial to conduct the in-depth study to understand policy directions’ , successes, failures, and effects. Thailand’s first official tourism development plan is the National Tourism Development Plan 2012 - 2016. It was written during the decline of global economics. The plan emphasizes several times that the shifting of global economics might affect the trend of global and Thailand tourism (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2011). By using SWOT analysis, this plan reviews the environmental factors of the Thailand tourism industry, as shown in Table 4. This approach shows the back-and-forth process between policymaking and marketing planning that the Thai government adopted. There are five factors from SWOT table that the committees pick as the crucial issues for the development of Thailand tourism. Those issues include the increase of international tourism, the decline of Thai tourist attractions, the weak tourism management structure, unpredictable threats, and the availability of services and tourism section (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2011).
The increase of international tourism includes international cooperation, the growth of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), the coming of an aging society, and the growth of particular interest tourism segment. Thailand should be prepared for these changes. According to the plan, it suggests that Thailand should pay more attention to the special interest tourism such as health tourism, adventure tourism, spiritual tourism, sports tourism, or MICE which reflect the needs of those dynamics. Also, Thailand should be ready for the competition that would get higher because of the market’s potential.
The decline of Thai tourist attractions refers directly to the problems of safety, regulations, environment, and hygiene. According to the plan, tourism that focuses on the number of tourists causes this kind of problem. Together with the growth of neighbors who were the new investors in the tourism market, Thailand should switch its market to qualitative tourism and find a way to revive and conserve its tourist attractions in the long term.
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Table 4: SWOT Analysis of Thailand Tourism Industry 2012 - 2016
Strengths
- Tourism is a national agenda of Thailand
- Thai natural environment, culture, and people are essential strengths
- High investment in the service business - The availability of infrastructure and
tourism facilities
- Thailand has more experiences in international marketing than other developing countries
- The geographic location of Thailand is suitable for tourism
- Unique attractions and new service innovations
Weaknesses
- The weak logistic system between majority and secondary destinations - The decline of tourist attractions - Weak state mechanisms for tourism - The negative images of safety, tourist
fraud, and human trafficking - The lack of tourism personnel - The lack of tourism development
planning at the local level
- E-commerce is not as popular as other countries
- The lack of new tourist attraction - The lack of integration within the
industry
Opportunities - The growth of BRIC
- The shift in tourist behavior to the niche market
- Increasing of older travelers - Cooperation with neighboring
countries could provide more potential to the secondary tourist destinations - The expansion of low-cost airlines and
the trend of tourists traveling to a nearby destination
- The usage of technology and electronic system
- Economic integration, international agreements, and other provisions - International cooperation in control of
diseases, and solving global warming problems
Threats
- Higher competitive in the tourism industry
- Uncertainty of world economic causing tourists deciding not to travel or spend less during the trip
- International terrorist
- Natural disasters, climate change, and epidemics affecting tourists’ decisions - Competition to be an international
aviation hub in the region
- Competition between personnel in ASEAN which Thailand may not be the most advantageous country due to the low foreign language skills of Thai personnel
Source: Ministry of Tourism and Sport, National Tourism Development Plan 2012 -2016, 2011.
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Weak tourism management structure, which is the reason behind this tourism plan, relates to the deficiency of unity between organizations in each governmental level and the deficiency of knowledge about tourism management and development at the local level. From my personal experience of living in Thailand for more than 20 years, it must not be overlooked that this problem did not only appear in the tourism section, but it is also easily remarked on other industries because of the centralization of the state that causes inequality between the central and local government. Problems of logistics, tourist attractions, tourism personnel, and local tourism industry all seem to have inefficient cooperation as its root. The National Tourism Development Plan 2012 - 2016 specifies that each organization should find a way to integrate and encourage locals to associate in planning, and developing tourism in their area. However, it does not make any specific detail about how they would follow this suggestion (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2011).
Threats from a natural disaster, epidemic, economics, or politics are what the government and every stakeholder cannot predict or control. Consequently, once any of those were happened, it could significantly affect the confidence of the tourist. Thailand, therefore, must prepare to deal with them by implementing passive policy so that the country’s tourism can be recovered within a short time. The availability of services and tourism section in Thailand plays a crucial role in driving and restoring the national tourism and economy after being affected by global economics or domestic riots (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2011).
Based on the marketing analysis above, the National Tourism Development Plan 2012 - 2016 proposes five issues that every stakeholder should focus on and adapt to their conditions.
Important Issues
1. Develop infrastructures and facilities, especially in logistics and tourism facilities.
2. Sustainably develop and recover the tourist attractions, enhance the quality of destinations to the international level.
3. Develop products, services, and tourism supported factors to encourage investors to invest in the tourism industry.
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4. Promote the positive tourism images of Thailand to build awareness and reinforce the confidence of tourists.
5. Facilitate the integration of government sector, public sector, and governmental organization in tourism resource management.
Therefore, to measure the success of the plan, it sets the goals of the National Tourism Development Plan 2012 - 2016 as follows:
1. Thailand ranks at least five place higher on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) by the World Economic Forum, to rank between the 1st to the 7th of Asia.
2. Tourism receipts grow not less than five percent.
3. Categorized tourism has been developed.
Despite all the marketing strategy and stated issues, the National Tourism Development Plan 2012 - 2016 did not point out clear-cut solutions, or describe the role and responsibility of each related sector. Chapter 5, the Mechanism for Driving National Tourism Development Plan into Real Practice, only remarks that the Ministry of Tourism and Sport had a duty to provide advice to government agencies and push for integration in all levels, from the central, regional, provincial to local authorities (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2011). That analysis only refers to Thailand’s tourism industry in general. The Thai government mechanism is very complicated, only tourism management alone has many organizations and relevant laws. The Ministry of Tourism and Sport does not have power on commanding every related organization. For example, the logistics issues need the integration between the tourism organizations and the transportation organization, the tourists’ safety and human trafficking issues need the integration between the tourism organizations and the Royal Thai Police. Shallow planning caused the first national tourism development plan to be unsuccessful although it seems to be very familiar with Thailand’s tourism industry.
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The failure of the first plan led to the direction of the Thailand Tourism Strategy 2015 - 2017. The purpose of this strategy is defined in three respects. First, to lay the foundation of development in the short, medium, and long term to the preparation of the National Tourism Development Plan 2017 - 2021. Second, to focus on necessary activities that need to be implemented within the next three years. Third, to prioritize the improving mechanism to drive Thailand to be a quality destination by setting relations between each level and each province tourism mechanism (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2015).
The agenda of improving Thailand to be a quality destination became more explicit in this plan. It states that the next stage of Thailand tourism would not focus only on the increase of visitors but also pay attention to increase the length of stay and tourism receipts per capita expenditure per trip. Moreover, aiming for sustainable tourism, the development plan must be widespread to include more potential local communities and consider the possible side effects that may happen to locals’ society, culture, and environment (Ministry of Tourism and Sport, 2015). This plan shifts the tourism performance measurement from the quantitative measurement to multidimensional measurement and starts the marketing plan based on demand in the market.
Compared to the previous tourism development plan, this plan was written with a clearer agenda, goal, and plan. It sets six frameworks to push Thailand to become a quality leisure destination:
1. Higher Tourist & Stakeholder Satisfaction 2. Environment Protection
3. Seasonality Expansion 4. Income Distribution 5. Higher Revenue 6. Sustainable Growth
To respond to the framework, it set three dimensions of goal to reach by 2017: socially, economically, and environmentally. Socially, it expects Thailand to earn more tourists’ and stakeholders’ satisfaction and improve the international ranking of safety, sustainable
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environment, and sanitation. Economically, it expects Thailand to earn 2.5 trillion baht from the tourism industry by 2017 and increased the number of provinces that earn more than 5 million
environment, and sanitation. Economically, it expects Thailand to earn 2.5 trillion baht from the tourism industry by 2017 and increased the number of provinces that earn more than 5 million