Will Thailand be able to revive the lost hold over tourism?

This has been the worst hit for Thailand tourism and still the political turmoil has not subsided completely, it may sound a bit too early to talk about what needs to be done to revive Thailand tourism, but the question is unignorably there with many hotels reporting less than 10% occupancy rates, and more gloom projected, now may be as good a time as any.

It has taken a lot of effort, money and time to bring Thailand among world’s top tourism destinations but this unending political crisis has broken the backbone of the country as the tourism destination.

It started with a few protests here and there, then a few small bombs, then a state of emergency declared in Bangkok with countries issuing warning to the tourists to avoid trip to Thailand and then came the final blow with the airports of Hat Yai, Krabi and Phuket all closed by anti-government protestors, leaving thousands of innocent tourists stranded adding to the effect of global recession.

If this was not enough, the situation reached its worst when PAD closed Suvarnabhumi International Airport and Don Muang Airport, both in the heart of the country, Bangkok holding the siege for 8 days.

The tourism industry in Thailand has been strong enough to overcome the 1997 financial crises, SARS, 9/11 and other problems, but today it is fighting a much more fearsome opponent – chaos and uncertainty.

However, there is nothing impossible and the International tourism is not dead. The government, TAT, and private sector need to combine, to give travellers that do come back to Thailand some form of assurances of what will happen if ever the protestors returned to close the airports. Solid guarantees need to be given.

This is also a golden opportunity for bodies such as PATA to stand up and be counted. To organise roundtables, seminars with other organisations such as SKAL, TICA, TAT, the media, AoT etc that all within the industry can attend without any charge to brainstorm and try to come up with solid plans to move forward.

Thailand is an amazing country, with one of the richest and most beautiful cultures in the world. It has a cuisine which is celebrated and enjoyed daily the world over. There are pristine beaches, incredible bargains, excellent deals, there is something for everyone in every price range. So to answer the question – is Thailand safe? “Yes, but”, and it is not the tourism industry that can remove the “but”, that can only be done by the Thai people themselves and their political system.