The Nation: New TAT governor selected

[Nicke]

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) board selected Thursday Pornsiri Manoharn, deputy governor for domestic markets, to be its new governor.

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[Mr Lucky]

For anyone who cares about the tourism industry here, Pornsiri's appointment as TAT governor is very good news.

I dealt with the TAT a lot during the years the old governor, Juthamas was in power. She was a complete bonehead who kept her job because she was a Thaksin crony.

Ask her the most simple question about how she plans to market her country and you'd get three minutes of absolute non-sense. She seriously couldn't form a cohesive thought. It wasn't her English either - my Thai colleagues said the same thing about her.

So I'd go to press conferences and talk to Juthamas until she said something reasonably quotable. Then I'd go find the real story from K. Pornsiri Manoharn, who was in charge of international marketing at the time. She is a sharp, intelligent woman who could always tell me what was really happening. She'd listen to questions and then give an answer that would matter to my particular readers (and she always knew which audience she was speaking to because she knew all the reporters). She usually had any stats I needed and if she didn't, they'd be in my email by the time I got back to the office.

TAT is in very good hands. As long as there are no stupid power struggles (Pornsiri is unlikely to be as free with *ahem* creative monetary distribution as her predecessor), the tourist industry can expect a lot of useful support from the TAT in 2007.