INTERVIEWERS: ALIA FARAMAWI & MAHMOUD MANSI
EDITOR: MONA TIMOR SHEHATA
PHOTOGTAPHER: ALIA FARAMAWI
About Tiger Kingdom Phuket: A place that attracts tourism from around the world as it gives the chance to people to personally interact with Tigers. Tiger Kingdom Phuket is one of several branches among Thailand.
As copied from the official website of Tiger Kingdom (www.TigerKingdom.com) it’s clear they have a deeper vision behind playing with tigers and tourism, “Tiger Kingdom aims to increase the tiger population through captive breeding. These tigers, however, are not prepared to inhabit the wild and therefore, are faded to remain in captive from birth to death, which, given the current situation, it’s understood to be better than no tigers at all.
Since the tigers have been born in captive and fed a special diet of milk and chicken, they tend to be less aggressive than tigers in the wild. Captive tigers, therefore, can be visited by tourists, who pay a considerable amount of money to spend around 10-15 minutes with them.
The proceeds from tourism allows Tiger Kingdom to increase the tiger population through captive breeding, as well as improve the overall living conditions of the tigers through the acquisition of larger areas for them to roam around. Currently, the Tiger Kingdom has over 100 tigers in captive…”
THE INTERVIEW
1-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Who are the customers of Tiger Kingdom?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: Most of our customers are people who love animals especially tigers because here they can touch and feel the tigers and we welcome everyone.
2-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Being the Marketing Manager of Tiger Kingdom – where people come to visit the tigers, play with them and take pictures – which contains a percentage of risk, how do you manage to approach the customers who are not adrenaline seekers, and convince them with your product?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: Usually people who come here already want to be close to tigers, which is our product but a few of them hesitate to go in when they get here. They ask a lot of questions then our Customer Relations department assures them how safe it is. The hesitant customers start witnessing others who came before them and safely played with the tigers. They see the enjoyment on their faces then they finally decide to go in.
3-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What are the local and international marketing approaches that you use?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: We have several tourism magazines in Phuket that we already advertise in. On the other hand we have some local support from student activities and charities. However, we began with no advertisements at all. We relied on the word of mouth; people talking about us, it worked and we became known as a place to visit to see tigers. In addition to this, we created good connections and deals with the local tour companies.
4- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Who are the employees of Tiger Kingdom? What are the job titles that are present in such an organization?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: People who work here are hired for a job based on their required skills just like any other organization. We have many departments like a Managing, Accounting, Marketing, HR, Food and Beverage, Kitchen, Park, etc…
5- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Is motivation, and providing a bonus or a punishment part of the training of disciplined tigers? How do you provide that? Can these approaches be implemented on human beings too and affect their discipline as employees?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: We do a combination of bonus, motivation and punishment actions. In order to discipline our tigers we have to train them and we need to do that when they are very young. We start the training when they reach 2 months old. But before that we hand-raise the cubs so they can start bonding with us, and eventually they start seeing us as their own family. This way we both learn from each other. We learn to be together. Somehow we cannot let them be rough when they are with humans. If they do so, we need to tap on them to let them know the act is not accepted. On the other hand, if the cubs are sick or in pain for any reason the keeper takes good care of them, for example when they get scared of something unusual to them, we go and comfort them so that they remember us as family and friends; nothing they need to be afraid of. It is simply the method of every creature to get used to something that they know well and be afraid of things that they are not use to. However, not every human being can be disciplined very easily, because the human brain is complicated; full of thoughts, which makes it much more different. I would say human beings are clever pretenders (actors); some would do anything for something in return, but not everyone does.
6- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: In Tiger Kingdom, how do you recruit the tigers? Do you have some sort of personality or behavior test before accepting a certain tiger? What are these tests like?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: No, we do not recruit tigers. We breed our own tigers and train them ourselves. However, not all tigers interact well with humans; some of them after being trained, their behavior is still rough; when they play they do not trust anyone except their own keeper. These tigers are not used to being touched by customers but they still remain with their friends or siblings because young tigers like to be together unlike adults, they chose to live in solitude.
7- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Is it possible that a wild tiger can be tamed? How?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: Yes, if we have them when they are very young, but it is better not to get them from the wild. However, adult tigers are not possible to get close to even if they have been with humans all their lives, because the nature of adult tigers is living in solitude. When you are with them after a while if they reach the mating season, they will get so aggressive or very protective of their own territories or of a female, so it is not a good idea to deal with adult tigers neither wild-born or captive ones.
8- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How do you ensure that there is no animal abuse in the park?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: In Thailand, it is hard to have a good job with a good salary so if they want a job they will do as they are told, otherwise they will get a punishment. As I said, human beings are clever pretenders; some would do anything for something in return, but not everyone does. We aim to hire employees who love animals and they take good care of them. Those will be the ones who get a bonus and those who abuse animals are not qualified to work as keepers and that is the way it should be. Also there is a written note in the park for our customers in case they witnessed any sort of animal abuse they should report right away.
9- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Your photographers are highly skilled. Phuket contains a wide variety of photographers in each place I personally visited. How did you hire your photographers? Where they already talented or did you add your own trainings too?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: We have hired one who already is a photographer and we do a test before employment. However, the process of taking pictures with tigers is another thing, it needs training. For example, in the first week, the junior photographer needs to go with a senior employee to perceive how he works then he takes a couple of pictures of the same customer. The junior photographer returns to the senior to show him his performance and receive a feedback. The supervisor tells him which pictures are good, which ones need improvement or need to be replaced. Most importantly we teach the photographer how to be safe when close to the tigers.
10- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Whenever you visit a touristic place in Phuket, the photographers take a picture of you and print it. You see the picture on your way out and then you decided whether you want to buy it or not. In Tiger Kingdom, you are using a totally different approach than the rest of the places. Can you please tell us more about this approach, and why you are using it instead?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: Because this is a waste of resources, effort and time. Eventually after you print the picture the customer might not buy it. It is better when the customers are the ones who decided to have it or not.
11- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How do you hire and train the trainers of the tigers?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: We hire the ones who love animals or those who studied animal science and Zoology if possible. But to be a professional trainer we need time to train them. At least 2 months before we can let them go with a customer so that they can take care of themselves first.
12- HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is your criticism regarding the marketing field in Thailand, and what is your advice to Thai marketing specialists?
Phonphawit Ton-Od: I am very new in the marketing field, however I do believe that we as marketers should give customers the right way of what to expect through a different and creative approach. One company may have many services and products to provide its customers with, so we should first define the kind of customer we deal with. We need to know who our customers are; starting from a single person to big organizations. As a marketer, everyone except yourself are your customers.
But here in Tiger Kingdom the way we do things is more sophisticated because we offer a different product. Our product is a living one, it has a life that makes us need to ask for some cooperation from our customers; not just what they want but also how it should be implemented in order to make it safe for both tigers and humans.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Thank you so much Mr. Phonphawit for this amazing interview.
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