Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome
(left) tells tour operators to standardize their prices to avoid losing
the Russian tourist trade.
Phasakorn Channgam
Government tourism regulators called on Russian tour
operators to standardize prices and agree on a set of industry standards
in order to reverse price and quality cuts that Pattaya officials fear
will dampen the city’s biggest growth market.
Bureaucrats from the Department of Tourism
Registration and Ministry of Tourism and Sports met with Tourist Police
and Pattaya City Hall officials Oct. 11 to encourage tour operators to
“get on the same page.”
Pricing issues were at the top of the list, with
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome warning tourist agents that increasingly
frequent price undercutting could end up killing the Russian goose that
laid golden tourism eggs for the city. He cited the case in which
illegal Chinese tour operators whose price shenanigans in recent years
hurt the quality of Pattaya vacations offered to Chinese tourists,
turning off many to the city.
He said Russian operators should agree on a standard
average price, which will be governed by the Business Services Division.
Anyone found violating the agreement or using unethical tactics to beat
out competitors could be turned into the police for prosecution under
national business-standards laws.
The mayor warned agents that their customers were not
stupid: If visitors coming on an expensive tour package discover other
guests at the same resort paid much less, they will be unhappy. Unhappy
tourists tell others back home and, in the end, Pattaya loses, he said.
