Knowledge Fishing Ep.02 | Strategies in Tourism Industry in Thailand vs. Maldives

uh [Music] [Music] [Music] baby [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] good morning everyone good morning hello elena hi oh you're muted hello good good morning uh is the ceo joining too yes yes okay just just one uh one minute please how are you doing i'm good what about you oh great i'm checking my microphone everything is working yes everything is good and have you received my presentation also yes i did i did um right now we make you a co-host so you can share before we couldn't figure out how to do it but now we figured it out if you want to share you can share it as well but if you want me to share i can share it for you too okay great hello mr muhammad okay so um good morning everyone welcome to the second episode of our knowledge fishing online talk show uh my name is connolly you can call me lin and i will be your moderator throughout this session today we have two interesting guest speakers and from two different countries to talk about tourism here we have miss elena who is a director and brand strategist from lasko motifs which is one of the best and award-winning dmc in the maldives and miss ditikamon ritsu maiken asia pacific university graduate from thailand since our topic today is related to tourism we're definitely going to learn about how motives and thailand dealt with it during the pandemic as well as the overall knowledge of the tourism industry so stay tuned until the end to figure out the interesting knowledge that our guest speaker will be sharing with us today hello again miss elena and miss titika mon and mr muhammad welcome and thank you so much for joining with us today thank you so much link for inviting us now i would like to start by asking each of you how is the tourism tourism industry in your country right now whoever wants to start can start to answer first thailand or maldives um maybe maldives can start first thank you yes well i i would like to say that the tourism industry in demaldis uh is uh great um even uh i think that uh everything what is happening in the world uh related to pandemic um didn't really at the moment affect uh tourism and the maldives uh because uh we we are hitting the records on the monthly arrivals and uh it is really interesting to see and i think that um in a way that the maldives is very unique destination because of the isolation of the islands here in this country this all just um added a certain advantages considering the pandemic so if we're talking about a country with almost 1200 islands where each resort is an isolated separate island that is exactly where people want to go when we are talking about them isolation when we are talking about the safe place when we are talking about the place where people uh can be sure that you know the virus cannot be spread so this is why maldives became um already had an award of the safest destination on the of the world and um it's just i can just really say that we have been blessed with this natural isolation in this country and the arrival is uh arrival to the maldives so from the tourists around the world is really hitting all the records so we are very happy and that is what's happening in our country right now but i also would like to uh give a word to our ceo mr mohammed riaz who can add a little bit more about it yes hello everybody here everybody can hear right yes we can hear you sir okay i'm literally late i couldn't catch up sorry i didn't i didn't hear what you have been discussing before but i will add something to elena's uh speech of course more lives is blessed because we are so isolated so for us honestly kind of a blessing because we are having the highest number of levels of the occupancy very high and also spreading forward to the tourist is very minimized because vulnerable we are checking and then you should have a pcr test before you come to the modules and then they are going to an isolated island where all the staff they are already destinated and they are living in the island so there is no way that they can mingle with others so kind of very safe destination and again you know we are in the asia what i believe is with the climate what we have in in asia actually uh profit situation will be better you know it's not like that dangerous in the winter zone where you know there will be uh much worse cases so uh we should say that uh covet situation is not an easy thing it's uh difficult but for the motives of course uh people have to do more work people have to be more careful we have to be more taking more care of the visitors but other than that uh if we talk about a river of course uh we have very good however maybe because we are the only country in asia open you know but and also it's very safe thank you and i also just want to give a little bit of the figures for example if you're talking about the months of december uh 2021 then the uh average daily arrivals to the maldives was 5 300 people with the maximum arrived on the single uh day with a 7 000 so the figures are really great and the maldives proved that it is the safest destination in the world and it is the most attractive destination in the world because again of the isolation and because of the great weather so it's kind of like a literally the best place where you can be during the pandemic because of the um hot temperature and you know this the the sun and the beautiful beach and also the beautiful ocean transparent water uh so uh it's really healthy you know i think that even when you're swimming in the beautiful ocean uh we can't think of any disease uh coming to us because uh it's like we are um making a certain um things for our house which is helping us even more being healthy eating fresh fruits you know relaxing and uh that is everything uh the best what can be only possible done just to be in this place during the pandemic and not to be worried about any virus or anything like this yes this makes me want to go to modest right away you should come yeah i'm planning to come now thank you so much for sharing this um insightful information now mia asks to share about thailand okay um first of all i have to say like uh maldives maldives way of dealing with pandemic and travelers as a whole is interesting because um you have like the isolated roof just for travelers and you don't mix them with like normal citizens but in thailand we are a little bit scared of tourists or visitors because um of the micron and like uh we were scared that all shops will be closed again right now we open for um applicants for the test and go program uh so a little bit of travelers flowing to thailand starting from november but compared to the number before the pandemic is like quite a drop so right now i think the status is just in an okay level and they might open more in february that's what i heard yeah that's what i saw too they are failing planning to do that test and go again right without the quiet team yeah um so uh may i ask when you want to share the presentation with us [Music] well uh my presentation is related to the attraction of the maldives if that is something what we are going to discuss now that i can share it uh right away yeah and one thing i want to access i saw that mod is what was open since 2020 right correct since the middle of july 2020. so when everyone is like panicking because of the start of because the start of the virus like motives were open so it just really surprised me yeah well uh i think it's also uh many things um were related to i guess the certain nationalities which really wanted to go to maldives and they didn't want to wait and you know uh among uh the first nationalities were of course russians which uh really like to travel and then the maldives is uh one of the number one destination uh for russia and if you are again we are talking about the statistic uh right now the russia is numbers number two market uh to the maldives uh the only uh india at the moment is on the first place then the second the second one is russia and i think also because of that because so many people they were really keen to go to maldives and there was such a huge demand from the russia from russia and um that is also a little bit or some some of the things which really helped uh i i think you know to just not to be afraid you know to open the borders and uh people just could travel right away without waiting but i think that is also really really much related to the nationalities because again in different countries people behavior is absolutely different there are some people who afraid more you know they they hesitate to travel or they even hesitate to uh invite the tourists into their country but the other countries they are quite okay and uh they really want to continue explode explore the world they really want to continue travel to those countries which they love and they want to go there again and again and i think that also again coming back to the natural isolation um in my care in my opinion that the best way is that when the people are coming to the maldives after you know taking the pcr test and all the precautions which only can can they can do when they're already coming to the mall there is nothing else to be afraid of because after all they stay in the one island they do not go to any other places uh that is why um everything worked so well and it is still working and successfully uh showing us the the record figures as i said uh i guess that is the the this is the uh secret maybe yeah yeah so like um what i want to know is before the pandemic i what were the major attractions in maldives in thailand and did it change afterwards [Music] well if you are talking about the major attractions uh in the maldives um i i i can't say that something you know changed significantly definitely no i think that the only thing which uh we can see that that it's different right now is mostly related to the visiting of the local island because before the pandemic such as attraction like uh visiting of the local island was always a part of the offers so from every resort so when the people are coming to the resort they can you know buy different types of excursions and things related to the diving you know water sport activities different type of excursions and among them there were always a possibility to visit a local island to see how local people are leaving uh you know just to have that experience of being in the local island because as we know that the resort uh the life and the resort and the life in the real city of tumultuous is very different but right now because of the restrictions obviously this is one thing which is not permitted other than that the the other things and i would like um here uh to share my presentation and then just to show you quickly what what maldis can really offer is still there so the people can do so many things on the island and um i think i i can just um quickly jump into my presentation and show you a little bit of what i'm talking about so do you see my screen now yes yes we can see it yeah i wanted to uh just uh give a quick uh um again introduction of the concept of the maldives because at the moment the the traditional classical concept of the maldives is my island one resort that is what we are talking about this is exactly the isolation we are talking about so at the moment we have like more than 160 results like that of a different price rates different sizes and different uh concepts which the resources are offering to the tourists and this is why a game when people are here they feel safe they know that uh all the people who are surrounding them they are either vaccinated or they uh done a pcr test or or about things and um again uh that's uh giving uh everyone a more the feeling of being more confident um i just also want to uh specify that there is another type of the accommodation uh in the maldives which is uh like our local hotels or the hotels on the local islands or the guest houses we can call them it's also there and at the moment uh uh we are also having uh this type of accommodation open for the tourists as well as well as the resort is the only difference that the resort is just one island and one brand on the island but the guest houses or the city hotels is uh is a hotel which can be among a few other hotels on the same local island uh there is also a yacht safari which is quite famous in the maldives and if people want to for example not to stay on the island but they just like to travel from one place to another they just can live on the yacht and especially that's popular also among drivers we have also a a very interesting concept of integrated resource as you can see here um this is two resorts connected with the bridge which is a hard rock hotel and sa lagoon maldives so it's giving the opportunity to people while staying in one hotel to use um you know different facilities of the other hotel as well that is a new wave of the resorts again um different from what we called one island one resort and it's just giving also more opportunity for the um you know how to spend the time in the maldives were to do just a little bit more uh space again to um explore the surrounding and obviously all the beautiful villas which we have here with the classical beach drill or water villa but apart from that uh maldives is offering lots of uh residences it's a big villas with a few bedrooms for a big family or for a big group of people where people can not only come for just a few days but they can literally live there for months or two it depends on you know how long they would wish to stay uh there are even more interesting and uh kind of um i can say artistic type of the villas with for example like a tenth jungle villa or a water retreat with the slide and also even more exciting a wheel is uh such a street top house where the the tourists can experience living at surrounded by the treetops or for example even the underwater residences which we have now in the maldives and just really gives a unique opportunity to live under the water especially when the water is so transparent and the maldives it's it's really exciting and so many people they are dreaming about it and when they see it somewhere on the internet um yeah they're so excited to see it in reality and of course the private islands that is even more advanced option for the isolation i can say you know if you're talking about one island one resort all the guests which are coming to the um you know the resort again they stay in the isolated facilities but just imagine then that uh just right next to the main island of the certain hotel there is also one more small island with a few bedrooms there and then you know their separate gym and you know the separate spa room and everything completely isolated so it's just giving you even more sense of safety for uh very demanding people who don't really want to even you know stay close to to to the rest of the guests of the island so that option is also here again if you're now if we are talking about the attraction of course uh one of the best attractions in the maldives that would be amalda's fauna and uh people from around the world are coming to maldi's first world to see that beautiful reef the transparent clear beautiful water in the maldives and to be able to swim with uh mantas uh in uh where and then in some of the uh places in the maldives you know you can just swim with um up to 100 pieces of of the mantas all together or uh with the whale shark for example it's really really popular here then if you're talking about the the other attraction it will be lots of type of waters for diving a different type of uh excursions like watching dolphin or the trip to the sandbank for example then we have land sports such as football tennis and even the golf in some of the islands which are really big and of course the wedding uh many people uh just dreaming to have a beautiful wedding in the maldives and different resorts offering absolutely beautiful areas for again for the wedding like wedding pavilion decoration on the beach it's very inspiring and again like a dream control and of course for those people who are traveling with children we have an amazing kids clubs in some of the hotels the kids club are so advanced so big and offers so many uh interesting things that it's their the parents they really have a hard time to take kids back at the end of the day or they just really don't want to leave the island when the vacation is over and of course the boutiques every uh hotel will have a boutique where people can buy uh you know different summer clothes bags hats and souvenirs and some some other things spa which is one of the main attraction obviously because maldives is all about relaxing that's about the place where you can just relax and wind and the spa here is a really advanced and people always can choose they would like to go and visit the spawned land or spa on the water different types of yoga including classic yoga or aerial yoga or even floating yoga as you know the lagoons and the maldives are so calm and it's literally like a pool so there are no big waves here and then the floating yoga can be one of the also a great and very relaxing attraction here and we also we have even more creative types of attractions such as for example bubble house experience which is a one night experience where the guests can stay in a transparent bubble house they can just look at the stars through the whole night and stay in a very unique you know isolated also place at the beach where no guests would be disturbing them around or even when they want to fly under the water and we have here this type of the um underwater submarine where people can feel like they're in the aircraft but they're just flying through the water especially with the transferred beautiful water in the maldives that would give a very best experience stargazing of course where else then not in the maldives to watch the stars especially that we don't have much light you know much electricity on the island and then in the night you can see beautiful stars and just enjoy the whole experience here skydiving even this is possible now in the maldives and for those people who just want to be uh you know more they just want to get more emotions uh to want to have more uh bright experience they can do even skype skydiving now and of course the beautiful underwater restaurants at the moment we have six underwater restaurants in the maldives and uh this six underwater restaurants uh that is something what attracting people from different countries and i think it's one of the must-see in the maldives definitely and of course uh if you're talking about for example a new year and uh you know festive season christmas the maldives are really doing amazing beautiful parties uh just people all the guests who are coming to the maldives during the season they feel like they're in some kind of fairy tale so this gives lots of emotion very bright um very bright emotion and a great memories for the whole family and that's something which also attracts people from around the world especially during the december and january different types of the special events and festival also so that is in short which i can say about maldives there are definitely a bit more things also if you're talking about the attraction but i hope that yeah i i tried you know to show you how many variation of the attraction in the maldives um available for the people and that is why so many people from around the world are just coming back here sometimes a few times a year and uh having a great time in the motifs yes um this is really like um useful and insightful information and thank you so much for sharing with us like i learned a lot right yeah since um we have limited time now i want to highlight thailand as well um so for thailand i understand that um they have so many um restrictions with the government right so how are the government dealing right now with all the restriction um with all the restrictions you mean uh with uh they they are for tourists yes yeah um so as i've said before tourists have to apply for uh coming to thailand for the test and go program but before that they have like a the sandbox program and the result of it was um well uh we um it it came out that uh the one of the tourists um got coronavirus and so the the cove it spread again in thailand so the sandbox program was shut down and then they're trying again with the chest and go program the tourists have to be fully vaccinated and after they successfully applied for the tessenco program they come to thailand and then they have to stay in the um government approved hotels only and then they do the pcr test and if the result comes out negative then they can go anywhere freely in thailand but if it came out it comes out positive they have to um sadly they have to stay in the hospital instead oh i see um since um it's different right in thailand and more dips well this is an island so it's really isolated and people can just travel but in thailand you have like a land um destination like sea land like a city so uh with those um in those type of city does it change um after the code i mean the attraction places do they change they do change significantly because um they try not to have as many tourists at once right because before they don't really have like a restriction the number restriction but um right now you try to have as less people in an open space or like in the crowded space at once as much as possible so [Music] um but i think that is good for uh in the city situation we are in right now uh and um as for the tourists themselves i think they tend to go to a more um isolated place like um hiking hiking in the north of thailand or um go to like a private island or um try to be isolated as much as they can i see uh what about the phuket sandbox i i think it's similar to motives right the plan is to isolate people from the city yes yes yes but uh i don't know much about the sandbox program but i think i heard that um well uh they're not that strict in the beginning so that's why um uh the kovit started to spray it from there so i think that's um like an important lesson that they learned from the sandbox program and then they're trying to improve more in the test and go program that they're using now let's see so um another thing i want to access did your government like try to attract more travelers with the giving situation situation do they like help and any and or provide any support to the local um to the local oh yes um we have as for the locals we have uh um i don't know how to say in english because uh the program name is in thai but in translates like um let's go to let's go to travel or something like that uh they give thai people a discount like a half a price discount to a major uh hotels like the five-star hotel you can get a half a price for staying there like a night or two nines so that increased the number of local tourists significantly i think everyone wants to want to experience like a five-star hotel you know and and then go to travel everywhere uh they can use that um program for like a half a price of food so i think yeah that also um helps a lot but as for tourists um i'm not sure [Music] about uh the half a price situation i don't think they get the same at all unless you have to pay the full price but um uh i think thailand's trying to find a way to increase the number of international tourists at the moment so maybe they'll come up with like interesting ideas in the future is it still affordable for the common tourists to visit both motives in thailand for thailand i think it's affordable for normal people as my friend from japan who is vietnamese just uh came to visit me yesterday he passed the test and growth program so i think anyone anyone as as long as they apply for the program they can get accepted see a question for the moulders yeah regarding the affordable tourism yeah um uh mr yes would you like to add a few words about the affordable tourism in the maldives yes yes thank you uh well you know all the government came with the plan as alina has described on the presentation that the local items can have small hotels or guest houses where they are really cheap people don't even believe it on that because there are uh hotels for the price of let's say 60 dollars per person for two persons you know this is a almost uh same in thailand and all over in asia so it's it's kind of affordable now because uh what happened was in the mall is everybody believing that morris is so expensive so they don't just don't want to see into the movies you know just think about it well it it's of course affordable now people can enjoy the stem environment of course there will be different changes i see in thailand also there are expensive hotels and cheap hotels yes uh what what i see is you know only a kind of a fear you know it's depending on the government uh the health department you know what happened in the modis is that because we have very small population you know so in normandy normally in general the hospitals or the health facilities are designed not for you know high number of people so big countries are so much more careful that i have to be more careful because in the mornings it's like we have a population of let's say 500 000 maximum so uh the government just believe that if something happens there will be enough facilities for everybody plus the tourists so uh that's the diff you know so what motives took place you know and then it became uh it became good uh our population uh and people uh people have done pc artists before they leave so there shouldn't be a much problem because they are only going by aircraft the aircraft also so yeah it's affordable now very much yeah so um based on your perspective with which sectors are the most effective because of the pandemic for example like is it the hotel the airline the travel agent or the locals who rely on the tourism for the for the mornings of course uh tourism we depend on children you know so kind of our blood is tourism so it's no tourist we will not survive so uh for us of course all the hotels yes it's very mushy and it goes to all the economy so modis will be more vulnerable than any other country because we don't have other much national uh resources other than you know fishing so uh if you for the question i think uh all the islands you know a lot of pianos got bankrupt because if they don't fly they will not sustain so uh so the mode is of course if there's no holy spirit not kept foreign [Music] so that's that's the thing so i guess it's equally uh equally affected you know the airlines and then well i see what about thailand who do you think got yeah who which sectors are the most affected i think in my opinion they they're um at first i thought they're both affected right but then i i think again there are [Music] a lot more hotels than there are airlines in thailand so um i think for the small hotels the the small gats house the smaller business um they are the most affected because they're not government approved tourists cannot stay in the smaller hotels and they have to depend on the locals and the locals they have their house and they don't want to stay in hotels for a long time and if they want to stay in a hotel they would rather stay in like government approved hotel so in the end i think the small people affected the most i see um yeah so um our time is almost over one last question uh one last question from me uh that is like um do you think that we or what do you think we all can do to get the tourism industry back on track as for the maldives i think that everything is done and i and i i do i do believe that the the tourism is really back on track uh quite successfully in the maldives i think the government did everything they could in the best way to make sure that there are no you know uh very that there are no uh big restrictions or complicated rules for the tourists to enter the country and that is why everything is successfully working you know the resorts were full during festive and then within the year and even right now after the festive is over it's also um it's really hard to find the availability now so in my opinion uh in my opinion um everything is working really good and um i think that just uh just the country has to go on you know with what they already started and um you know we are we welcome the people from over all over the world the visa again is free for for all the nationalities you only need a pcr test with with you with a negative result obviously and you can freely travel to maldives to any place uh you want yeah uh would uh mysterious would you like to add anything else i think uh yes in general you know tourists are coming for relaxing right so they don't want to have you know extra headache so when you when you design uh inviting when you're inviting to risk to a country you should always think that tourists have to be very much you know easy to go so that's what we have to think i mean i think in thailand also you have to think about it that tourists don't want to stay hotel even for one night and then they are not they are not happy to trust again you know so when when the government can design the whole thing like tourists have to be very much free okay thinking the map of precaution minor precautions i think that will work that's what i think by the 92 hours 92 hours pcr so 92 hours which is four days so we have a lot of time on there and then we also be that if tourists is coming let's say uh yeah they will check yes so they will check on boarding the passenger so everybody on the aircraft is safe so they are just flying and then within a couple of hours they are landing to the airport and then they are going to the isolated hotel facilities you know so i think that the government if they open it more of course taking the minor precaution so so in the maldives um i think as as i say um the things were done perfectly here everything uh just to ease the the entry requirements for the tourists were done in the perfect way and this is why the tourism is so successful now that is why the the resorts are full and this is why the people from all over the world is coming back for a few uh two times again and again within one year to mold this because they know that here it's easy to enter here is that they will have a great time and here they will be safe and they don't have to you know have any worries yes i see what about thailand what do you think we can do or thai people can do for the tourism industry to get back on track i think i agree that um there's ali moving forward now and there's no stopping because uh uh we're gonna live with this situation for quite a long time in my opinion and we have to uh be get used to it and get vaccinated as soon as possible when it's available for you and then once everyone's fully vaccinated i think they they can um come down and then uh live with uh the situation we're in right now and try to improve um what has to be improved uh yeah do you also think that um they should like ease the restriction more so that people can easily come in yeah but uh once they um everyone's fully vaccinated they can try to ease more and more and more as time goes on okay so right now i our time's up and we're a bit eight minutes over but it's okay um because i got a lot of um useful and knowledgeable information from both of you about the maldives and thailand and i would like to express my gratitude for sharing your extensive knowledge on the tourism sectors and for your time thank you so much guys so much thank you very much liam for inviting us we are glad to participate in this event thank you so much for inviting us um i'm glad i can hear a lot of insightful information foreign like the motive yeah yeah i think for us same for us yes i think we'll learn a lot about the other country about thailand yeah yeah i think we all can take examples from motives because they are very successful no matter what right thank you so so much guys thank you for joining bye

2022-05-23 00:59

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