Thai Tourism Ministry to step up measures for tourist safety

[gemguy]

What sort of Safety Measures?

Everyone receives a pack of condoms when they arrive....

You mean like that?

[tuanku]

There is no concept of risk MANAGEMENT here in Thailand. They are quite good on risk AVOIDANCE........ someone drowns swimming at a National Park waterfall, ban swimming, rock climbing in Phi Phi looks dangerous to the uninformed, ban rock climbing, tall buses fall over all the time, ban tall buses. However managing risk to allow activities to continue but make them safer - no ability whatsoever to make informed judgments. Not sure if it is lack of information or lack of judgment, but when I see an entire family including toddlers on a motorbike with no helmets, i am inclined to the latter.

[TheLobster]

Ministry of Tourism and Sports to step up measures for tourist safety: Two provinces namely Krabi and Chiang Mai will be pilot areas where the safety and security measures will be taken. The governor of each province will integrate efforts of all agencies to solve the problems about tourist safety within two months so that other provinces throughout the country will follow suit at a later date.

I'm absolutely shocked that Koh Tao isn't piloting this idea

[PeeJay1959]

I don't live in Thailand, yet.... but it strikes me that they are simply a few years behind the rest of the world. We seem to want to judge them against more advanced countries. I live in the UK and am 56, I vividly remember in winter months when the roads had gone beyond the black ice stage, no salting, the snow would get compacted to inch thick ice and the council would finally come out with an open truck and 2 men stood on the back with shovels throwing just grit. Note the 2 men standing in an open truck whilst moving!!!

[callaway]

For little or no cost the problem could be solved overnight. Do the same as Singapore. Crimes against tourists are treated very harshly. Whats more they are carried through. Jail time irrespective of who you are. No leniency shown. For a couple of extra jails being built, the extra income from improved tourism, would pay for them in a heartbeat. In fact once the message was sent to the thugs you would find they, the extra prisons, would only need to be used for a short time. It all comes down to the courts to show they are giving appropriate sentences and their ratings would improve dramatically. The other alternative will be disasterous for the country. Less and less money spending westerners will go elsewhere with Vietnam and others reaping the benefits. Unfortunately they just live for today with no forsight. All they will end up is with chinese and indian tourists if they do not fix this issue.

[madmitch]

So what kind of "tourist safety" can we expect ? More police check points stopping foreigners and asking silly questions ?

They only ask me if i can speak thai....if i ask them if they can speak english they always let me go ...

Krabi needs taxi's with metres, many tourists get robbed (and scammed) by the bahtbuses.

Same on Phuket. A friend and I were waiting for a baht bus which would actually pick us up and not stop, allow us inside and then have the driver declare it a 'taxi'. Wonder if they have 'taxi licences' ..

You'd have had a long wait. There are no baht buses in Phuket.

[Thian]

2 weekends ago i was in Central World and got checked at the bts-entrance. When i went out of the Isetan exit and came back in (with backpack) there was NO security at all!

How is it now there? Anybody been there lately?

[dcnx]

More motorbike helmet police will solve the problem.

[spidermike007]

The fact that this country is ranked just above El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Venezuela says it all. Those countries have some of the highest homicide rates in the world, due mostly to the drug related gang wars. Here, the homicide rate is still relatively low. So, the deaths here occur from utter carelessness, poor safety standards, a near complete lack of highway patrol or traffic safety, very poor regulation of dangerous tourist recreational activities, such as bungee jumping, zip lining, elephant safaris and jeep safaris. Many of these fatalities can be avoided through prevention, but only if the authorities cared, which they obviously do not. If lower class people (commoners, or the majority of the population) and foreigners are killed, it is of little concern to the police, and the powers that be. They have demonstrated that time and again, and continue to demonstrate that, on a daily basis. Egg on their faces, and shame on their beings.

[sapson]

They could start this in Pattaya.

At the jetski scam locations...........

Their should at all times be a medical team to attend to the wounds of the assaulted tourists to save them a trip to hospital.

For the tourists who choose to pay up without argument their should also be an ATM machine located right on the beach to save a walk across the dangerous traffic of beach road.

Of course they could actually employ tourist police who have balls and will protect the tourists..............rather than posing around in the uniform for kicks, but maybe that is asking too much?