Ecotourism in Thailand

Many tourists love to travel to Thailand because of some impressions provided by Thai people.Thai tourism service focuses on providing the amazing experience by offering a personalized service to its customers, focusing on every detail in order to maximize the value of the experience and offering a small gift such as welcome card, Thai snack or local souvenir.

There are many public transport; bus, train, sky train (BTS), subway, tram, taxi, Tuk Tuk, motorbike taxi, and etc. However, there are many complaint about the system.There is no standardized pricing system for some services such as Taxi and Tuk Tuk.The bus, train, and BTS are always delayed.The breakdown of BTS occurs too often.A lot of accidents happened from vans offered the transportation between the cities in Thailand.

Some people in Thailand can speak English. Hotel staff will very likely speak English because they have to deal with visitors from other countries. Shopping malls, especially those in tourist areas, you can likely find staff who speaks English as well. Taxi drivers, mostly not, although if you are lucky you may.For Ecotourism businesses which are mostly located in the rural areas in Thailand, most of people that need to interact with the tourists cannot speak English.

Some tourist attractions in Thailand have a two-price system where they charge foreign visitors more than local people.Some services such as Taxi ask for more service fee from tourists.In some areas, they force the tourists to buy their products.

In the service providing business, human touch point is the most important in maximizing customer experience. Therefore, the training programme for the employee and improving employee experience is the key success driver.Digital media is the cost effective way to provide the information and essential channel in the tourism industry.Tourism business needs to consider about managing the word of mouth strategy as it is very powerful in influencing the expectation of the customer.

Affordable: Your money go a long way in Thailand. What you might pay for a beach side hotel in the U.S. is likely half the price in Thailand and food from the local village and street vendors can be as cheap as a $1 for a meal.Incredibly friendly Thai people: The natives are kind, happy and willing to help you when you are lost.Amazing Food: You haven’t experienced real Thai food until you’ve had it in Thailand.Ideal for a traveler: You can grab a flight and in just four hours be in Bali, three hours to Hong Kong, two hours to Singapore and it is half way between Australia and Europe. It’s the perfect place to start or end a travel adventure.We have everything!!: Everything you want to experience, we have in Thailand in the tropical weather.

There are many touch points through many channels divided into digital media and human touch points.

The main channels that tourists get the information about the Ecotourism in Thailand are the websites, social media and mobile application.There is an official website of an association related to the green travel or Ecotourism, Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association. Also, there are many websites provided the information such as gothailand.com or makemytrip.com.Regarding travel websites such as Tripadvisor that allow the customers to provide reviews or rating, it is one of the channels that have an effect on the customer expectation and the channels that spread the word of mouths.

This touchpoint is the most important touch point in this industry and service provider organization because the value is created mostly from the customer experience provided by human involving in the customer journey.All the resources need to be well-trained and have service-minded.Human touch point is included in the journey from the beginning point which is providing the information to the customers and in the middle of the journey which is providing the service and offering an experience to the customer, to the end of the journey which is receiving the feedback.

In order to reignite growth in Thailand's tourist industry, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has embarked on a new campaign for 2015 entitled "2015: Discover Thainess". TAT Governor Thawatchai Arunyik said the campaign will incorporate the "twelve values".The government has also supported the ecotourism in Thailand becuase it represents all the twelve values and offer the Thai culture experience to the tourist most.

Nowadays, eco-tourism has grown to encompass a range of adventure and travel activities including Bicycle Tours, Elephant Safaris, Sea Cruises, Trekking, Walking and Wildlife Tours. Clearly, Thailand has huge advantages for the eco-tourist. The countries rapid development has not reached all parts of the country and there are pristine areas for the adventurous tourist to explore.For example, Pai and Chiang Mai, the two destinations, where most of the trek will begin in northern Thailand. Many travel agencies trekking for a period of three days a week. Overnight stays in hill tribe villages remain in the home, in bamboo huts for the more organized. The meals are cooked by the guides who want to help travelers who want to learn to cook Thai cuisine with local ingredients.Besides the North of Thailand, another example is a day of cruise ship-3 in Bangkok and Ayutthaya, where travelers experience stops along the banks of the Chao Phraya river of bicycles. In this way, they discover that Villages with local factories, magnificent temples and appetizing food markets. The trip ends in Ayuthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand from 1350-1767, where more than four hundred temples and monasteries can be visited.Also, the south of Thailand has seen many years a growing number of visitors in the last twenty, and has several national parks for eco-adventure travel. The exploration of Khao Sok by the oldest evergreen rainforest in the world, which is one hundred and fifty kilometers Surrathani should not be overlooked. The park has an extensive wildlife with elephants, tigers, leopards, bears and mountain landscapes with Gaurs in limestone. The nights are organized in tree houses and homes-top raft in the lake of Khao Sok.

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015 published by the World Economic Forum ranked Thailand 35 of 141 nations. Among the metrics used to arrive at the rankings, Thailand scored high on "Natural Resources", 16 of 141 nations, and "Tourist Service Infrastructure", 21 out of 140.In 2013, Thailand was the 10th "top tourist destination" in the world tourism rankings with 26.5 million international arrivals.In 2016,Bangkok ranked 1st surpassing, London and New York in Euromonitor International's list of "Top City Destinations" with 21 million visitors.

Thailand is famous for its beautiful white sand beaches and stunning, clear blue seas. With over 2,000 miles of coastline and 8,000 tropical islands. Thailand offers visitors a wide variety of beaches to choose from, including quiet, secluded coves and stretches of sand that are filled with party.

There are many things to do during the night time, especially in Bangkok.Bar and ClubRestaurantNight MarketEtc.However, there are some differences between the real Bangkok and Bangkok in the movie.

This is a major part of the country's cultural legacy and reflects both the challenges of living in Thailand's sometimes extreme climate as well as, historically, the importance of architecture to the Thai people's sense of community and religious beliefs. Influenced by the architectural traditions of many of Thailand's neighbors, it has also developed significant regional variation within its religious buildings.

Definition: Travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education" (TIES, 2015). Education is meant to be inclusive of both staff and guests.Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement, participate in and market ecotourism activities should adopt the following ecotourism principles:Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts.Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry.Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climates.Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities.Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment.Source: The International Ecotourism Society

Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association are two main authorities which support and control the tourism activities in Thailand.Proper governance by these associations will eliminate the problems related to the unfair price and transportation system problem.

As AOT has already launched the application for the tourist to access to the information related to the tourism, the authority should include all the information that the tourist needed in the application. Examples are transportation schedule/tracking, online map, information about the accommodation, the price of the services. Ultimately, the tourist can use only one channel to access to all information and the information is reliable, standardized and accurate.

The authority should provide the English education or training to all level of education. Online free English training should be provided because of its easy to access, affordable and flexible.