Thai Alcohol Ban will hurt Tourism, says President

The Thai government is currently under pressure from anti-alcohol groups in the country to ban all alcohol sales in the country during the Thai New Year Songkran holiday April 11 -15.The groups are urging this ban in an attempt to reduce the number of holiday fatalities that are caused by drunk driving during the country’s biggest holiday. More than 30,000 people are killed or injured on Thailand’s roads during the annual Songkran festivities. However, since the overwhelming percentage of people who die on the roads during this period are Thai teenagers driving motorcycles and overloaded pickup trucks racing along the highways while drunk.

Education and parental involvement are what is needed to end the carnage, but that isn’t something that is popular. Banning sales is far more newsworthy and frankly easier than trying to resolve the real challenges. As an example of some of the negative consequences that will occur if this ban is implemented, is that the tourism industry suffers yet another setback in its attempt to claw back from the nightmare of the Suvarnabhumi closing in November. The economy is bad enough and tourists are hard enough to come by already without placing additional burdens on the Tourism industry.

The government has delayed this measure while it seeks compromise solutions and they may just delay long enough so that it becomes too late to really do anything. There is also the matter of constitutionality which is being looked into. A ban might simply be illegal. Whatever the reason they come up with the government must not accede to the wishes of a few fanatics whose commitment to solving problems consists of ideas that do more harm than good to society as a whole. For the good of everyone this ban must be stopped in its tracks and real efforts that have a chance of solving the basic problem should be initiated instead.