The
new director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT),
Northern Region 1 is a very affable TAT career professional,
Junnapong Saranak. Despite joining TAT 27 years ago, he is no
stranger to hard physical work, and also understands the
frustrations of youth being denied employment because of lack of
experience (when nobody will give them the opportunity to gain
that experience!).
Junnapong was born in Chaiyapoom province,
the youngest child of a provincial court judge, and
Junnapong’s mother was from Phrae - a teacher of home
economics and a housewife. With his father moving between
different provinces, his schooling was somewhat disjointed, but
eventually he was sent to Bangkok to complete his secondary
education.
He began his tertiary education, not in Law,
as his father might have liked, but in Agricultural Science at
Kasetsart University. “I remember my father coming in at night
to teach my elder brother about the Law, and I didn’t want
that,” said Junnapong. He also added that his father did allow
him to make his own decisions. However he did not like
agriculture either and after one year went to Chulalongkorn
university to study Mass Communications, which at that time was
not as popular as it is today.
During his course he did not initially worry
about where he would work after graduation, “You don’t look
to the future,” said Junnapong, “because you are having such
a good time!” But as time wore on, he realised he had to start
preparing for post-graduate life, so went to the government’s
Economic Development office for vocational work experience,
hoping that this would give him an introduction to the
department later.
He graduated and applied there for a job,
only to find there were 100 candidates in front of him! In
desperation he accepted the job as a ‘manager’ in a fish
cannery in Trang, owned by the father of one of his friends. He
found afterwards that his ‘managerial’ position meant he had
to get up at three o’clock in the morning and drive to the
fishing port to select the fish for that day’s canning, put
them in ice and drive to the factory in time to supply the
workforce with the product to be prepared for processing. He
managed 12 months as the ‘manager’ but was actively looking
for other employment.
His mother was also actively looking for
employment for her youngest child and would arrange interviews
for him. Every time he would pass the written test, but fail at
the interview when he would be asked, “What experience do you
have?”
Finally he had an interview with the Tourism
Authority of Thailand for a position in their staff welfare
department. This time he did have experience, after 12 months of
looking after the staff (and everything else) in the fish
cannery, and he was hired. No longer did he have to get up at
three in the morning for a date with a cold fish! He was even
started at level three (out of 11 in the TAT) because he had his
bachelor’s degree as well as his experience.
Being in the TAT is similar to being in many
government bodies, in that the incumbent has to be ready to move
around. Junnapong was now no different in that respect to his
father who did the Law circuit, except Junnapong was embarking
on the tourism circuit. But an advantage of the tourism circuit
is that you get to spend time overseas.
He began the slow upward haul within the TAT
(currently at level eight) and took in time overseas, as well as
alternating with time in Thailand. This is actually his second
stint in Chiang Mai, the previous time being 12 years ago, after
he had returned from a four year tour of duty in Tokyo. At that
time he was an assistant director, but after 16 months at that
level, he was offered the position of director - but in Tak
province. Again the downside of being shunted around rose for
Junnapong and his family. They had come to like living in Chiang
Mai, but to keep Junnapong going up the ladder of ascendancy,
something had to be sacrificed. The compromise was reached
whereby the family would stay in Chiang Mai, while Junnapong
would commute every weekend. In the next six years, he and his
motorcar made the sacrifice, racking up some incredible
distances with the weekend trips.
After Tak it was off overseas again, this
time to Taiwan to interest the Taiwanese tourists in coming to
Thailand for their holidays. One of the favoured destinations
for his Taiwanese clients was also one of Junnapong’s
favourites - Chiang Mai, and after four years of extolling the
Rose of the North’s attractions, he returned here, with his
family who had been with him in Taiwan.
He enjoys the work, saying, “It is an
opportunity to do your job in creating your own marketing
promotions.” He also mentioned the differences in marketing
techniques between ‘short-haul’ tourists (Asian countries)
and the ‘long haul’ tourists (USA), and how it is his
position to be able to work out how explore both these potential
markets for the domestic product, in this case Chiang Mai.
In his stated aims, he indicated that he
wants to show the world the different tourism products that are
available in Chiang Mai, and also items that are available in
their own home countries such as golf and spas, but are much
cheaper here.
His personal aims include hopes that he might
once more go overseas, but to the ‘middle haul’ market
regions (Europe) or the ‘long haul’ (America), rather than
the Asian destinations. “This is not just for me, but for my
family also,” said Junnapong.
His long term goal is to retire in Chiang Mai
and tend to his garden when he is outside, and when indoors, to
continue with his one consuming hobby, which is stamp
collecting. Not just any stamps, but Thai First Day covers.
Welcome back, Khun Junnapong.
