Tourism committee to promote river communities and world heritage sites

BANGKOK, 09 October 2015 (NNT) - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Thanasak Patimaprakorn spoke after he chaired a meeting of the National Tourism Policy Committee, which reported continuous growth in tourism.

The meeting, which was also attended by Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, is the fourth such conference of 2015. General Thanasak said the number of tourists has grown 30% from last year. He added that the atmosphere at Ratchaprasong Intersection has returned to normal since the bombing.

The committee has also devised plans to stimulate tourism, declaring three areas of tourism development. The first area involves tourism of world heritage sites, covering Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet, Phitsanulok, and Tak provinces.

The second area centers on the culture of the Mekong River Basin, which spans Loey, Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, and Bueng Kan provinces. The final area centers on the culture of the Chao Phraya River Basin, including Singburi, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani, and Nonthaburi provinces.


-- NNT 2015-10-09

Discretion and logic are obviously not strengths of the NTPC, as evidenced by the three areas identified for tourism development.

The first area involves tourism of world heritage sites in selected provinces – where foreigners will no doubt pay inflated admission prices to enter venues. This very topic was posted on TV on 6 October, under the heading “Thai man overcharged at national park is actually an American”, and received 440 responses arguing about the practice of charging foreigners much more than Thais.

The second and third areas centre on the culture of the Mekong River and Chao Phraya River Basins.

Perhaps somebody forgot to tell the NTPC, but both these areas are predicted to be severely affected by drought over the next six months.

Consequently, the peoples of these regions will have very pressing problems coping with loss of farm revenue and providing for their families.

First, the governments inaction at the beginning of this year's rainy season has a lot to do with the serious situation these farmers now face. Now, the NTPC’s plans to stimulate tourism in these regions, is only going to subject these suffering people to more torment by exposing their hardship to outside exploitation, and by having “tourists” compete with them for local and scarce resources (water, food, accommodation). The last thing these people need (until the drought situation improves) are busloads of insensitive foreigners turning up and expecting to be entertained.

On the positive side (for the people of these regions), I guess areas affected by severe drought are not going to be destinations that many tourists would want to visit. After all, there is nothing very picturesque in a dry paddy field, emaciated cattle, or destitute farmers.

So, maybe the NTPC should just go and find somewhere else to stimulate tourism (afterall, there is plenty of places in Thailand where that is already being done)!