Thailand Medical Tourism Blog Contest · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has launched a new blog contest to promote medical tourism.
Are you a blogger who is experienced in writing on the subject of either tourism, medical or/and medical tourism related blogs? If the answer is yes, then step aboard, you have exclusive rights to compete in this year’s ultra amazing Medical Blog Contest!
An overview of the contest:
12 qualified bloggers, also known as Finalists, will be selected to experience for themselves pre-selected key medical and health service providers from five randomly selected destinations over the course of 4 consecutive days,  and then 3 more in Bangkok. The TAT and/or Organizer will also arrange a variety of sightseeing tours for Finalists, so further encouraging Thailand’s attractiveness as a medical tourism hub.
Each Participant will be asked to share his/her daily experience with a global audience by posting blog posts, photos, videos and travel stories (in English language and/or his/her own local language) with social media tools in order to inspire other travelers to learn more about and take interest in visiting those destinations for the purpose of medical tourism.
This youtube video provides more details
What are the reactions of bloggers? As of this writing, there are 12 participating bloggers. The decision of tourism authorities to embrace social media is appreciated by many bloggers but some are questioning the strategy for this particular blog contest.
Jon Russell describes the contest as a “truly bizarre campaign”
I have to wonder just how many “experienced blogger writing on tourism, medical or medical tourism” actually exist in the world?
I honestly can't believe the top offer is an “ALL-INCLUSIVE SEVEN-DAY MEDICAL TOURISM FAMILIARIZATION TRIP IN THAILAND”!!
Yes, people want to come stay in Thailand… but most want to be on a beach… not touring medical facilities
While it is true that this is just one of many campaigns to promote Thailand overseas, but I am genuinely surprise at how poor the concept behind the strategy is
Richard Barrow agrees with Jon
I think it is great that the TAT have moved more into digital media to promote Thailand. But, like you said, their efforts recently have been more miss than hit. They certainly have plenty of money to throw around on campaigns but it would seem like they are being advised by the wrong group of people. Or are they just spending the money blindly just to justify their huge budgets?
But commenter You must be joking defends the blog contest
What's hard to understand about the strategy? They are attracting people who already write about medical tourism. Dry stuff that requires — let's be charitable and say simply “a certain mindset” — and you'll probably find as little interest in beaches and mainstream tourism as if you offered a trainspotting blog contest. We're just seeing lab coats instead of anoraks this time.
Long story short, the appeal is to a certain type of geek who the TAT expect will go home and pimp for them for free with months of free content.
Not a word will be said about the utter absence of any malpractice law here or the minuscule probability of success in suing a doctor or medical facility.
The medical tourism blog campaign has a Twitter and Facebook account.
Thailand has embarked on an aggressive digital campaign to win back tourists who were discouraged by reports of political violence in the country this year.