Diagnosis of tourism ills way off the mark
Play
Re: "Experts pinpoint tourism setbacks", Business, September 17
In Wednesday’s article the two biggest issues cited were “cleaning up inaccurate statistics and data”, and centralised political power. The experts cited had “30-50 years of experience in the industry” and concluded that government officials have been counting visitors incorrectly and that the industry has been dominated by a single political party for too long. These, they said, are the reasons the industry is “now facing the risk of collapse and losing its strength”. Really?
What about crimes against tourists, such as the not-infrequent murders, or the serious transportation safety issues, or the requirement for long-term tourists to leave the country every 30-90 days? None of these apparently low priority issues were even mentioned in the article.
Their priority for reform – to improve the way tourist arrivals are counted – surely won’t improve visitor confidence or encourage a greater number to come to Thailand. Perhaps this is what lies at the root of Thailand’s tourism setbacks: a failure to pinpoint exactly what the most serious issues are. I doubt the so-called experts cited talked to a single tourist in their search for answers.
Jerry Feldman
