TAT plans training to upgrade staff
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THE TOURISM Authority of Thailand plans to upgrade its workforce to cope with the changes in the tourism environment.
“There are 900 permanent employees [of TAT] excluding contract staff. All staff are set to have |training to increase capability and skills in order to |help drive the tourism industry,” Sugree Sithivanich, deputy governor for marketing communications, said yesterday.
The agency will run a series of intensive courses to improve human-resource development and management.
Each employee will receive training in such areas as career planning, work rotations and internal communications.
Intensive training is part of a new five-year plan that TAT is drafting.
The authority turns 56 tomorrow. However, it is likely to face a shortage of experienced and senior staff, as many employees are retiring.
Departing this year will be the TAT governor, three deputy governors, one adviser and other senior staff.
The preparation of staff is expected to help the agency deal with the evolving tourism landscape and current tough competition.
Other national tourism organisations are putting more effort into marketing, such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and Australia.
Singapore is beefing up marketing to lure more business travellers, while Australia is focusing on online and social media.
“We are also facing a tough global situation, and economies in key markets such as Europe, the United States and China remain unstable,” Sugree said.
Thawatchai Arunyik will reach the end of his term as TAT governor at the end of this month.
TAT’s board will soon talk about a third round of selecting a new governor, after cancelling the first two rounds last year and just recently.
