Hotel industry to adopt HM the King’s self-sufficiency philosophy

Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
During a time when tourist numbers are tumbling and the economic future is uncertain, hotels and other tourism-related businesses need to adopt the philosophy laid out by HM the King to become independent of the economy and as self-sufficient as possible, hotel executives and academics say.

Wiwat Salyakamthorn, advisor to the Sufficient Economy Institute, was the lead speaker.
“If we operate according to this policy, then it will make our business operations immune. We won’t have to worry about any crisis that might occur,” Jet Sopitpongstorn, managing director of Horseshoe Point Co. Ltd., told a seminar for businesspeople, investors and employees at his Pattaya resort Aug. 20.
The concept of a self-sufficient economy, espoused by HM the King, holds that agricultural families can make do on their own without help from the government. But businesspeople have taken the idea further, trying to apply it to all facets of the economy. In the case of tourism, hotel operators say they can become self-sufficient by using as much natural power as possible and recycling their own products.
Wiwat Salyakamthorn, now an advisor to the Sufficiency Economy Institute, said he’d employed these tactics to his family’s hotel, redesigning the meeting hall to use sunlight, rather than electricity, for illumination during the day and using leftover food from customers as compost he distributed to area farmers.

Jet Sopitpongstorn, managing director of Horseshoe Point Co., Ltd.
Horseshoe Point has followed in the same tradition. Jet said the resort reduces expenses by growing its own rice and vegetables as well as helping employees catch fish, making soap and saving energy. Money is also saved by not turning on air conditioning until 10:30 a.m. or later.
“After just one month of operation, it clearly showed a decrease in the electricity bill,” Jet said. “Using a sufficiency economy plan in daily business does reduce expenses.”
Chumphorn Cabana Resort & Diving Center near Koh Tao is another example. The Chumphorn resort nearly went bust during the financial crisis of 1997. But, just as the bank was planning foreclosure, Managing Director Waris Eakphan met Wiwat, who was staying there as a guest and learned about operating using a sufficiency-economy business plan.

Rawisorn Rakphan, managing director of Chumphorn Cabana Resort, a hotel that uses His Majesty the King’s views on the sufficiency economy to operate hotels throughout all crisis situations.
The hotel now is a leader in the “green tourism” field, operating its own wastewater-treatment facility and producing liquid fertilizer from hotel organic waste. It also is constructed from interlocking bricks so that wooden frames and supports aren’t needed and uses water-cooled walls to cut down on the need for air conditioning.
“We have an example from Chumphorn Cabana that is very practical,” Wiwat told the seminar. “Several university researchers went to study the business-administration philosophy about how to improve upon the last 10 years of heavy losses and stand on its own two feet. It started in management of personnel, good relations with the surrounding communities and results for community support.”
Wiwat said about 20 hotels in the Pattaya area are now following HM the King’s philosophy, but more could join the movement.
“We need to first understand ourselves, know about our Thai mentality, about the real Pattaya and know about effects caused by the economic downturn,” he said. “Pattaya has immense strong points. His Majesty the King said that knowledge, conscience, attempts, giving, hospitality amongst the tourism businesses, and courtesy amongst the food producers to support tourists or emphasize the importance of Pattaya society will be the main way to lead our businesses forward.”

Business loans likely to increase in Q3, says BoT

Business loans are projected to increase marginally in the third quarter of this year mainly because small- and medium-size enterprises have begun to benefit from the government’s stimulus package, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).
The expected business loan increase also stemmed from an implementation of the government policy to encourage state financial institutions and specialized financial institutions to extend loans into the system.
The BoT source forecast financial institutions would compete more fiercely in lending and issuing debt instruments in the third quarter.
With financial liquidity still high in the system, financial institutions would be able to begin to ease strict lending standards toward average clients.
As for household loans, the source said demand is projected to rise slightly in the third quarter since the property market is expected to pick up and the interest rate likely to stay low.
However, the demand for credit loans is anticipated to decline as a result of a fall in credibility of borrowers in tandem with the economic slowdown.
As for second-quarter lending, it was found that financial institutions remained strict in their lending to the business and consumer sectors because of risk factors to the economic and business system, including persistent political disturbances and the A(H1N1) influenza outbreak. (TNA)
 

Government urged to encourage baht’s weakening

The Thai government should adopt a policy to encourage weakening of the baht as advised by Chatumongkol Sonakul, chairman of the Bank of Thailand (BoT) Board of Governors, to enhance revenues in the export, tourism and agricultural sectors, according to a leading economist.
Delivering a keynote speech on “Overall Picture of Macro-Economy of Thailand at Present,” former deputy prime minister Olarn Chaiprawat said the baht should weaken to stay at around 36 to the US dollar in the present economic circumstance.
In the first quarter, the BOT managed to make the baht depreciate at 35.50 to the dollar, but the currency turned to strengthen and stay at 34 to the dollar in the second quarter.
Additionally, he said, the government should accelerate lending to small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism, real estate and consumer sectors to stimulate the economy.
In the first half of this year, loans extended by commercial banks contracted by up to Bt220 billion, he said, adding that the government should speed up budget disbursement and spending. Taxes should be reduced to boost economic recovery.
These measures, if successfully implemented, would make the Thai economy recover in a “U shape” and grow close to that of the third quarter of 2008 at 3.9 percent.
He predicted that the gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of this year would enjoy positive growth after having contracted 4.3 percent in the same quarter last year due to the economic crisis. (TNA)