That Was The Year That Was – the Thai Year in review - part 1

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That Was The Year That Was – the Thai Year in review - part 1

 

Picture: Stock image

 

Convicted! For Tourism Treason!

 

Never far from the top of the news in 2016 was the subject of Tourism.

 

While even reading between the lines made it difficult to know if it was really up or down this year one thing was for certain – spoiling its exalted image became nothing short of a national crime.

 

A kind of “Treason of Tourism” charge was leveled against anyone from errant taxi drivers to multi- millionaire tour operators who stepped out of line sufficiently.

 

Anyone who had an impact on arrivals and the money they might spend was castigated equally whether they had conned an individual out of a few hundred baht or ripped off the state for billions.

 

The phrase “spoiling the image of tourism” became as prevalent as the term “fleeing the scene” in Thai news stories as the public and the authorities in equal measure found scapegoats to spare.

 

Most serious of the image spoilers were perhaps a group of drunk Thai men who assaulted members of the Owen family in Hua Hin at Songkran in what became known as the Battle of Bintabaht after the soi where a grandmother was kicked in the face while on the ground.

 

For while the bombing outrages perpetrated in the seaside town and further south in August actually killed someone and seriously injured many others, the news of the Owens’ attack and its aftermath were shared across the world.

 

It was a crime that everyone could relate to and though the miscreants were jailed for two years, an initial cover up and pathetic recriminations about who posted the story, “damaging the kingdom” when the damage was already done, probably caused as much trouble as the well-aimed Thai fists and boots.

 

Every taxi driver who didn’t turn on the meter or who charged thousands of baht from Swampy to downtown Bangkok was hauled before the Court of Tourism’s Image.

 

Some were turned on initially then exonerated – such as the hill tribe children in Chiang Mai who were named as thieves then declared not guilty of any misdoing.

 

Then the blame game shifted to having a go at foreign media for damaging the country – whatever happened, someone had to carry the can for scaring Thailand’s Golden Goose into stop laying her magical tourist eggs.

 

Forever in the news was the Minister for Tourism and Sports Khun Kobkarn Watanavarangul as she became one of the junta’s foremost spokeswomen.

 

While some of her proclamations would have enjoyed a semblance of acceptability in an ideal world most were just plucked from cloud cuckoo land.

 

In July she announced puritanically that no real (or quality) tourists came to the Kingdom to avail themselves of the sex industry. She said she intended to destroy the sex trade.

 

One can only wonder at the raised eyebrows of the influential Thais – politicians and otherwise – who must have thought the elegant lady minister had worked a screw loose in her anti-screwing crusade.

 

Needless to say in subsequent months it wasn’t referred to again; perhaps someone had had a quiet word in her shell-like to tone down the rhetoric and concentrate instead on the cash cows that could fill the coffers of the Kingdom rather than deplete them.

 

In the latter part of the year her focus shifted to doing away with the practice known as zero-dollar tours.

 

Offering cost price tours to mostly Chinese groups, then fleecing them for the add-ons in Thailand, was said to be doing considerable damage – to supposedly the image but really the revenue.

 

Several companies were prosecuted and their unusually wealthy Thai and foreign owners are languishing in jail ahead of being reduced to penury for the sake of the national wedge.

 

But near the end of the year this policy had seemed at least in part to have backfired with tourism officials, even if not the minister herself, admitting the strategy may have affected arrivals from China more than anticipated.

 

It was couched in gentle diplomatic terms but screamed almighty cock-up to those who follow the news between the lines.

 

A rethink seemed to be in order though the junta stopped short at levelling “treason in tourism” against one of its own or its own departments. This prerogative remains their stock-in-trade.

 

Time and again we were told in no uncertain terms that tourism was booming. Reports on the ground seemed to suggest otherwise but still the authorities ploughed on regardless.

 

When operators in Koh Samet, for example, said that a crackdown on the island’s mafia was destroying tourism it was all put to one side as other issues more relevant to the saving of face took center stage.

 

Meanwhile, one subject related to the welfare of the country – the appalling carnage not just on the roads but on the high seas – attracted Khun Kobkarn’s attention.

 

She pronounced an end to speedboat accidents in the south promising more regulation then went quiet when those operating without licenses continued to mangle tourists in their propellers within days.

 

The truth is that huge issues need huge, concerted measures, with serious political will combined with police and local authority enforcement – not half-hearted political rhetoric.

 

Frequently the well-intentioned minister showed that her transition from CEO of Toshiba to the political arena was, at best, a work in progress.

 

On a more local level the charge of damaging tourism fell on largely deaf ears in places like Pattaya.

 

No one in their right mind would really suggest that eliminating bag snatchings and lady boy attacks would make even an iota of difference to tourist arrivals at the resort.

 

Now if they had banned sex……

 

Perhaps mindful that all was not going according to plan in the last few weeks of the year visa fees were waived for many nationalities and visa on arrival charges were slashed, at least for a few months.

 

But once again a sensible initiative was plunged into absurdity as outlandish claims of what this meant for increased tourism revenue were plucked from the air like mangoes from a tree.

 

The initials of the country’s Tourism Authority -TAT - could never stand for Truth And Transparency.

 

Many visitors – especially the young and carefree - did their level best to behave as badly as possible but they were not roped into the treason charges.

 

Those who clambered over historical walls in Chiang Mai or who raced up Doi Suthep on a bike ignoring the traffic rules and littering, were just told not to be silly and given a slap on the wrist. No surprise there.

 

Foreigners behaving badly in Khao Sarn were brought to book more by their compatriots than by the locals who worried about criticizing anyone for spending their money in Thailand.

 

And the Thais down south just moaned about westerners climbing up the sacred “penis” rock in Samui.

 

Condemning them by grumbling was all that happened – making an example would have felt more like a greasy pole to national poverty, for the want of a better analogy….

 

Finally the biggest story in Thailand of this or any other year – the death of the beloved King Bhumibol – was always going to have an unpredictable effect on the life of tourism.

 

Generally speaking a sensitive and sensible approach was adopted as Thais – and more than a few tourists – mourned the passing of the great monarch.

 

Good measures were put in place to advise visitors about protocol and the authorities were vocal in encouraging people not to cancel their holiday plans.

 

But it was impossible to hide the inevitable and justifiable toning down of entertainment and the impact this would have on tourism though the passing of the king probably had a more marked effect on the Thai tourism sector at a time of understandable national grief and sadness.

 

As the country recovers from this and other pivotal events it will be interesting to see how the whole issue of tourism progresses into 2017.

 

However, it would certainly help if there was more transparency and that any initiatives were carefully planned and thought through with knee-jerk reactions being rejected in the future.

 

Whether that will happen is quite a question but I, for one, will not be holding my breath.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-12-16

[elgordo38]

Good article. Yes tourism is the Holy Grail in Thailand. Screw with it at your peril.