Lack of Thai visionaries who can see what lies over the horizon

The authoritative Australian travel writer Robert Upe, reporting in the equally authoritative Sydney Morning Herald on September 8, says, in effect, that tourism in Phuket is about to hit a brick wall.

He reports that the island resort is stretched to capacity and that between now and 2015, “more than 5,000 new (hotel) rooms are in the pipeline for Phuket ... but there are alarm bells”.

He continues, “ ... the island continues to face both a mounting infrastructure dilemma and lacks a clear-cut long-term tourism plan. This can perhaps be best demonstrated by the delayed upgrade plans at the gateway Phuket International Airport. With the expansion plan now expected to be completed by 2015, assuming an average annual growth rate (in tourists) of 5 per cent, the expanded airport would hit capacity by 2017. Essentially this equates to a scenario of a new facility being dead on arrival”.

We have all read many reports of the same lack of forward planning in the building of Suvarnabhumi Airport, which has already reached capacity in many respects, necessitating the reopening of Don Mueang International Airport and leading to a fierce debate on the need to expand the facilities, including runways, at Suvarnabhumi.

Why is it that the myopic planners of these major infrastructure projects are only capable of looking to the near horizon and saying, “Yes, that is our target?”

True visionaries are able to look over the horizon to embrace a distant future. Accordingly they plot a very different course. Are there any such in Thailand?

David Brown

Rayong