The PR problem

By Suchada Tupchai

Colors of the East, the festival held as part of the celebrations surrounding the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s accession to the throne, was as its title suggests a colorful event highlighting the attractions of the Eastern region. It was designed to entice visitors to Pattaya over the long holiday weekend, and to inject tourism revenue into the local economy. In other words, a good concept all round, and the kind of thing in which Pattaya should excel.
Yet again, however, as with so many other big events held in this town, it lacked good public relations.
Time and time again, this inability to publicize and inform has hampered local events. Afterwards, when the success or otherwise of an event is being discussed and analyzed, the same complaint is heard: it would have been better with better PR.
To be fair, this is not just a Pattaya malady. An inability to collect, process and disseminate information is a national shortcoming. But in Pattaya we should be able to do things better because tourism is our lifeblood and the promotion of events is what draws people to them. It is no good simply staging an event and assuming people will come. And there is no excuse over budget shortages: the money is there. It is simply a lack of ability to assemble information and communicate.
Why should this be, when we have a public relations department, public relations companies, public relations personnel with public relations qualifications, and a public relations budget?
It cannot be down to lack of media. There is just about every form of media available in Pattaya. Ask the media people what the matter is, and they will say they don’t receive materials. Or that they don’t receive adequate materials, because it should be pointed out that the general public buys newspapers or switches on the radio or television to be informed and entertained, and that the media operators have a responsibility and self-interest to do just that, rather than feed half-baked material to their audience.
Then again there is the timing. Media editors work to deadlines, and far too often – far too often – materials come in from events organizers, especially official ones, that are too late for inclusion.
City hall desperately needs an information system that reflects not just its function as city administrative center but also as an events organizer. There are large budgets attached to these events specifically for promoting them to the largest audience possible. But the lack of traction somewhere in the process renders much of this money useless, and in turn the revenue generated by the event falls short of what it should have been, had more people turned up.
It is time, we feel, for some professional PR in this town. But as this is said after every major event that is organized here, we are a little cynical as to whether or not this will happen.