Tourism bodies call for aggressive crisis response
International and local tourism organisations have urged the government to engage in more aggressive crisis management during the floods crisis, as delayed communication has contributed to business losses in the tourism sector.
The issue was addressed yesterday during the quarterly luncheon meeting hosted by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Thailand Chapter.
More than 100 tourism professionals gathered to brainstorm on the impacts of the crisis and ways to rebuild the industry after the flood waters recede.
Though many tourism operators blamed international and local media for shaping confused information for foreign tourists, notably the pictures of aircraft under water at Don Mueang Airport, they urged government bodes related to the sector to be more aggressive in their communication.
They cited Airports of Thailand and the Transport Ministry in particular, as they are responsible both for the flood-affected Don Mueang Airport and the unaffected Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Kusa Panyarachun, the 93-year-old founder of the PATA Thailand Chapter and now managing director of World Travel Service, the oldest travel agency in the Kingdom, said that in such a crisis, the best spokesperson communicating to the world should be the prime minister, while tourism-related government agencies and organisations were supposed to work together as a crisis-management centre to deliver a single message.
PATA chief executive officer Martin J Craigs said the crisis-management team should be using new communication technology and speedy communication through all media channels, especially social media.
Luzi A Matzig, chief executive officer of Asian Trails, suggested that to minimise business losses, the Foreign Ministry should use diplomatic channels to communicate with those countries that issued travel advisories against visditing Bangkok, and seek to convince them to lift the advisories as soon as possible.
“During this unavoidable crisis, we are doing our best to ensure a collective effort as well as to recruit help from every part of the tourism industry in order to cope with the crisis,” said Suraphon Svetasreni, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
According to the TAT, the sector has suffered about Bt70 billion in overall damage and lost business due to the floods.
However, there is hope for tourism business as the sector is likely to recover quickly, as was the case following the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2008, the outbreak of avian flu in 2009 and the political unrest of last year, said Hanah R Messerli, senior private sector development specialist and tourism finance expert at the World Bank.
