Protecting tourism demands commitment

Italian cities are well known among tourists for their gangs of pickpockets. In India it’s the beggars who swarm visitors in alarming fashion. Thailand has its fair share of cautionary tales for tourists, and some of them are considerably scarier.

In one recent incident, caught on video and widely shared online, a man working for one of the countless beach-chair rental services in Pattaya takes umbrage with a western sunbather for sitting on her blanket rather than renting a chair. He circles her, gently kicking sand onto the blanket, and then gets pushy when she rises in protest. 

In the age of social networking, just one such incident eclipses the positive effect that a thousand Thai smiles have on the tourism industry. Viewers of this video will care little or not at all that the authorities quickly arrested the thug, and they’ll still be watching it years from now, heedless of when it was taken. 

The reputation of Thailand’s once-idyllic beaches is by now badly marred by such images of greedy and aggressive chair-for-rent operators whose staff intimidate and chase off tourists when they refuse to play by their rules on “their turf”.

The government has vowed to bring a semblance of order to the tourist beaches, but the deep roots of these problems temper our 

optimism. They will require more than flash-in-the-pan measures to solve. 

The sand-kicking incident seems paltry compared to far worse experiences tourists have had here, but it serves right now to shine a bright light on the various issues undermining the industry.

First is the lack of proper regulation and control. Obviously, a better-regulated tourism industry would simply not allow such ugly incidents to happen. 

There must be countless other cases of aggression and intimidation that we don’t know about, probably because no one videotaped them or the tourists involved chose not to report them.

The second issue is the exploitative mentality of the businesspeople who focus solely on immediate profits while ignoring the longer term. The rationale is that foreigners can be intimidated into paying up because they’ll go back home tomorrow and will invariably be replaced by another batch. 

People will always go to Italy and India. No thought is given to the cumulative knock-on effects of this when the beleaguered tourists spread the word.

This mentality just creates a multitude of other problems. 

Tourists are routinely overcharged in this country. Illegal businesses operate with impunity and have thus multiplied like mushrooms, despite the cutthroat competition that often leads to violence.

It must be noted, too, that Thais tend to be “overconfident” when it comes to the very scenery that draws Westerners here – the beaches, the mountains, the temples included. As long as these remain, the tourists will keep coming, no matter how tainted the country’s reputation becomes. This is dangerously flawed logic.

If Thais are renowned in general for being gracious hosts, there is also a lack of political will to preserve that reputation. 

Our policies and regulations are formulated and enforced according to the belief that the tourism industry is “too big to fail”.

Too often we are content with quick-fix responses to unfavourable occurrences. When overpricing is in the headlines, someone gets slapped and policy is quickly amended – only for the changes to be rescinded or forgotten in short order. The same pattern can be seen as the seriousness of the issue rises – with increasingly tragic consequences – from robbery to rape to murder. 

Our tourism industry, such a substantial pillar of the economy, depends to a great extent on the beaches. 

Our policy towards the mistreatment of visitors cannot be built on sand.