Culture ministry strays into tourism

BANGKOK, 17 December 2012: Thailand’s Ministry of Culture will promote the country as a hub for the film and video industry in Asia to boost tourism revenue.

Culture Minister Sonthaya Kunplome said he has planned eight strategies to boost the film and video industry during 2012 to 2016.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports also has a foot in the door of the film industry promoting “on locations” shootings for movies and advertisements with incentives and logistics assistance.

Critics may say there is a duplication or a need for the two ministries to talk to each other to avoid a waste in budget spending.

The Ministry of Culture says the eight directions are: Build production capacity; improve industrial management and restructuring; train skilled personnel; promote film production domestically and encourage international companies to shoot in Thailand; fight piracy; create cultural values; film shoots promotions and investment promotion.

“The ministry also will propose the establishment of an Office of Film and Video Industry Promotion to push forward the strategies and bridge the cooperation between the public and private sectors,” the Minister added.

Currently, Thailand Film Office which is supervised by Ministry of Tourism and Sports looks after for the country film industry.

The Ministry of Culture’s strategies are vague with very few if any concrete proposals that would differentiate it from the objectives the Ministry of Tourism and Sports is currently pursuing.

According to the Federation of National Film Association of Thailand 2011 research, there are 192,000 people working in the industry and 74,000 business operators including films, animations, music, games and karaoke companies.

Their estimated asset value is Bt50.7 billion and income Bt77.5 billion.

For January to October this year, there were 526 international productions shot in Thailand generating Bt1,574.65 million in revenue. Japan, India, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Europe, and the United States are the country’s key source for film industry.

The justification for the Ministry of Tourism and Sports involvement in promoting films on location is the supposed high level of awareness for Thailand’s tourist destinations that films shot here encourage.

However, in most cases the location shots are rarely attributed to Thailand except for a passing mention in the credits that very few viewers bother to read.

The exception has been New Zealand’s successful exploitation of the “on location shots” of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the most recent premiere of the Hobbits movie, also shot entirely in New Zealand.

It went as far as to drop its clever and popular 100% Pure New Zealand advertising theme for a “Middle Earth” tag in a gamble to capitalise on an anticipated movie rave as the Hobbit blockbuster trilogy unfolds from now to 2014.

Sourced: ttrweekly