Tourism Australia closes overseas offices

BANGKOK – Tourism Australia has decided to close overseas offices in Thailand, Taiwan and Dubai.

All three offices have to pay off staff and settle all financial obligations by June 30.

It will cost TA a huge bill in severance pay and office rentals that have to be terminated.

TA regional general manager for South/South East Asia, Gulf Countries and International (eastern), Maggie White, announced the decision at a cocktail reception in Bangkok this week arranged hastily to placate travel agency concerns over future partnerships.

While she called the move “part of going forward”, outbound tour operators in all three cities view it as a set back that will further erode market confidence.

Tourism Australia announced its decision to close down its Dubai office a day earlier and faced a barrage of negative comments from tour operators in the Middle East in less than 24-hours of its announcement.

Ms White described the three offices as representation set ups, hinting they were not staffed by Tourism Australia paid executives or fully-fledged offices.

However, this contradicts statements over the last decade that always positioned the Thailand office as a 100 percent dedicated office run under the Tourism Australia umbrella.

A representation office would require that Tourism Australia hire a company in Thailand to run its sales. If this was the case, then the contracted company’s identify remained a close secret and contradicts statements made by its executives in the past.

Tour operators in Thailand describe the closure as short-sighted and clearly a cost-saving measure that did not take into account long term benefits.

It was noted that Japan and New Zealand have raised their promotions in the market recently rather than reducing their presence.

China, too, is considering opening promotional offices in Thailand. The Thailand market delivers 80,000 visitors a year to Australia, mainly high revenue incentive groups.

Tour operators in Thailand will now have to contact TA’s manager of Trade Development, Kelvin Yin, who is based in Malaysia.

TA correctly described his role as working “remotely” with Thai travel agents. He will also be overworked as he covers Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, International (eastern) South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East Gulf States.

Tourism Australia faces cuts in its annual budget of around 30 percent. However, it has not fired top executives or asked them to cut their expenses.

Instead, it has opted to cut its sales force on the ground leaving its highly paid top executives still enjoying huge salary, travel and entertainment benefits.

The decision means the end of a 16-year career for TA Thailand office manager, Thongchai Wibulsaksakul, who got a thank-you party to send him off into redundancy.

“I am very thankful for agents that supported us for many years and I ask them to also support Mr Kevin Yin by providing him with feedback,” said a generous spirited Mr Thongchai.

Under Thai labour rules, TA will have to pay severance pay, representing as much as one year in salaries for staff who served more than five years.

Travel agents were shocked at the treatment afforded Mr Thongchai and are seriously displeased with TA’s decision to shut down their marketing office.

Thai Travel Agent Association chief advisor, Anake Srishevachart, said: “The closure might give us a negative image, that we are not an important market.

In fact, TA has gained huge benefits from having a Thailand office. Yes, it is still surprising why they decided to close the Thailand office, while other countries consider Thailand as an emerging market and want to open their offices here.

For example, China has collected a lot of information to set up an office in Thailand and will do it soon.

“As an Aussie Specialist, we are not happy that they have closed the Thailand office. TTAA will send a letter to Tourism Australia in Sydney and Big World will send a letter to Australia Tourism Export Council regarding this matter,” he concluded.

“TA Thailand put in a strong effort to promote Australia which indirectly support agents’ sales. For me, outbound travel to Australia is still promising and closing the office will cut only opportunities to promote the destination should the economy recovery next year.

"Sure, travel agents will sell other destinations that are easier to promote and where there is support for our efforts,” said Big World Holiday’s managing director, Viboon Kamontho who sells outbound to Australia for over 17 years.

Vacation Travel Group general manager, Patnaree Leewatananont said: “It is about the convenience of having a TA person on the spot to help us with promotions. Most Thais look at Australia as a one-time destination. TA was working on building repeat business. That effort will be lost."

TA will downsize its offices in other regional market like Hong Kong and Japan while focusing more on Shanghai office in China.
There have been no announcements on down-sizing at its head quarters in Australia.

Source TTR Bangkok