Editor’s Notebook
Iwas impressed with her cool when Ms Angela Kwek Sui Hoon stepped off her Thai Airways flight from Singapore to Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport and was surrounded by a parcel of tourism officials, media and performers, not to mention the surprised and interested travellers wandering what all the commotion was all about.
THANKS A MILLION
Angela was the 1 millionth Singaporean to visit Thailand in 2018. The Tourism Authority of Thailand created a “Dear Singaporean, Thanks a Million” campaign that produced two consecutive years of over one million tourist arrivals from Singapore. By working with media, travel agents, airlines, by doing road shows and many more promotions, they were able to achieve this goal.
While some places complain about ‘over tourism’ Thailand, despite being one of the leading destinations in the world for tourist arrivals, would like to climb even higher in the top 10 ranking. Thailand understands the benefits of people visiting their country – and it is not just the money they spend.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
After Angela had collected all her booty, companies were very generous in presenting her with gifts, once the same number of pictures had been taken as there were visitors from Singapore, I had the opportunity to speak with Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports, H.E. Weerasak Kowsurat.
When I asked him about his plans for tourism for Thailand he replied. “Sustainability. What I mean by that is that it is not all about the numbers or how much travellers spend when they are in Thailand. It is about them having a big smile when they leave the country. We want them to enjoy their time here and get to appreciate the Thai people and our culture. Our Thainess.”
DIFFERENT APPROACHES
A different impression than that which they might get in Barcelona where people have attacked tourist buses to make them feel unwelcome and hopefully stay away.
“Our focus in the coming year is to get people to destinations other than Bangkok so that our other regions can feel the benefits of tourism. One thing that we will do is to expand the runways in the smaller airports so that more international flights can take travellers directly to their destination.”
What will entice people to go to outlying areas? “We will tell the stories of these places so that people will have a reason to visit them,” the Minister responded.
OVER CROWDING
Despite all the people visiting the country, 35.4 million in 2018 according to one source I have never heard of locals complaining that they were being overrun by tourists. While Bangkok may get the bulk of them, they seem to spread out throughout the city. In the European cities where locals are complaining the most everyone seems to be going to the same area – the old centre of the city where the buildings retain their heritage character, where the restaurants, museums and shopping are magnets and the Instagram locations abound.
While you can’t build new heritage, you can encourage people to see more of the area around the centre so that everyone isn’t crowded into the same place. It is no more fun for the traveler than it is for the local to be jostling in the streets. Could more be done to attract people during the off season or shoulder seasons? To a degree as many people can only travel at the peak times.
THE BETTER PROBLEM
Overcrowding is a good problem to have – because measures can be taken to alleviate it. And local governments, associations and businesses will have the money to deal with it.
There is nothing sadder than a city on the decline, with boarded windows, uncared for parks, drab colours and crumbling infrastructure. It is harder to improve such places when there is no money to work with. These are places that only the adventurous and the incurably stupid will go to. I know, because I’ve been to a few.
WHERE DOES THAILAND WANT ITS TOURISM INDUSTRY TO GO IN 2019 AFTER WELCOMING OVER ONE MILLION VISITORS FROM SINGAPORE ALONE IN 2018?