OPINION

Hubris a barrier

Re: "Tourism officials wary of Vietnam", (Business, May 6).

Wakey, wakey, Tourism Authority of Thailand. Had you delegated English-speaking staff to scan this column on a daily basis over time (one desperately hopes they exist), such tourist (and resident) bias towards the idea of shifting to more welcoming countries would have been starkly apparent, if the outraged letters were considered carefully (and understood).

Not an unreasonable idea, but pipe-dream stuff such as Thai hubris would never deign to such indignities.

Tourism rethink

Re: "Charm alone is not enough", (Editorial, May 5).

We should stop competing for tourists by aiming to be the cheapest destination and instead give the best value for money to different target markets.

Being the cheapest leads to unmanageable hordes, so let's limit visitor numbers, with custom packages for each niche market.

On pricing, at long last, we're stopping dual pricing based on nationality. But pricing based on residency (regardless of nationality) is fine and defendable. For services, let's follow Paris' Louvre Museum, which limits the number of visitors each day.

They offer free admission for all under 18, EU/EEA residents under age 26 and arts teachers (of all nationalities; proof of subject taught required). Others pay a general admission fee. The Mona Lisa will have her own room and separate charge, and there are guided and small group tours. This scheme allows each market to tailor what it gets to what it values most.

Our welcoming should include our immigration services, with forms available in Chinese, Korean, and Russian as well as English, and translators on hand 24/7.

To help stamp out scams, we should have a special tourist court, with translators, to settle cases within 24 hours. Tuk-tuks, taxis, and so on should be required to display fixed fares to major destinations.

We heavily depend on Chinese, Korean and Russian tourists, but how many Thai eateries have menus that they can read and staff they can converse with?

Competing on quality rather than price will be much more effective and profitable for us and our guests, and should be done.

Food app struggle

Re: "Foodpanda delivery service to exit Thailand", (Business, April 24).

So, with Foodpanda probably leaving, I went online to Grab to sign up for their food delivery service.

Of course, I was told to download the app. I refuse to order food on my phone as the screen is too small, as are the keyboard keys. I do have the Grab app for travel. So, I was then connected to its "chat bot."

After a lengthy back and forth between Google translate and the message app (I don't read or speak Thai), I received a comment that said "I don't understand. I'm still learning!"

Brought up in a world without computers, mobile phones and much of today's technology, we learned the art of conversation.

You would think that these AI-generated chat bots would recognise the fact that the initial message was in English and answer accordingly rather than subject the user to multiple issues in trying to figure out what is going on.

The result was that I gave up, Grab lost a customer, and I cooked my own dinner, thereby saving myself some money.