BANGKOK - Two Canadian sisters die mysteriously in their rented bungalow on
an idyllic Thai island, believed poisoned. Less than a week later, a
60-year-old Australian woman is stabbed to death in a botched robbery outside a
luxury resort in Phuket.
Their deaths are the latest in a tumult of violence and intrigue to shake
tourism in postcard-perfect Thailand, raising questions over whether it is
squandering a prized asset by failing to protect travellers arriving in record
numbers.
Other headlines are less dramatic but equally troubling: taxi driver mafias,
transvestite thieves, pollution, tourist brawls, traffic accidents, and at
airports, radar glitches, flight delays and long immigration queues.
"The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) think numbers are going up so
people must like it here, but the problem is the quality of their visit has
gone down," said Larry Cunningham, Australia's Honorary Consul to Phuket, an
island described by travel guide Lonely Planet as "one of the world's most
famous dream destinations".
The government has vowed to tackle "mafias" in tourist areas, while in
February, Cunningham appealed to Phuket's government to stop jet-ski operators
who hire thugs and demand compensation for equipment damage renters did not
cause.
Last year, a German television show broadcast footage of sewage pumped into
the sea at popular Kata and Karon beaches.
The problems have so far failed to dull Thailand's centuries-old exotic
allure. Its palm-fringed islands, gilded temples, spicy cuisine and racy
nightlife helped draw 19 million visitors in 2011, generating 776 billion baht
(S$30.86 billion) in revenue, up 31 per cent from 2010, ministry data shows.
Even so, tourism's contribution to GDP has barely increased since 2003 and
now hovers at 6 per cent. And with unspoiled destinations in neighbouring
Myanmar opening up, Thailand is under pressure to decide what type of tourism
it wants.
Phuket, for example, is at risk of sharing the same fate as another beach
destination: Pattaya.
A two-hour drive from Bangkok, Pattaya struggles to shake off a seedy
reputation as Thailand's "Sin City" and with red-light entertainment, crime and
unchecked development, it is synonymous with sleaze and spoiled beaches.
"We still think of tourism too much in a opportunistic, money-making way,"
said opposition lawmaker and former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij. "We are
putting the future of the industry at risk."
Tourist safety is another pressing issue.
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)- a motor sport governing
body - shows Thailand has the highest U.S. tourist road fatality rate in the
developing world, after Honduras. Britain's foreign office warns of robberies
and"vicious unprovoked attacks by gangs" on the party island, Koh Phangan.
Some tourists say standards fell short of expectations.
"In general Thailand feels safe but tour guides and drivers are more
aggressive," says Mattias Ljungqvist, 31, a Swede who first visited the country
a decade ago.
The TAT says it does not have regulations to tackle crime head on and safety
and environmental preservation issues are encumbered by local bureaucracy.
But with plans to promote Thailand to new markets in South America and
Central Asia, there is little evidence of its tourism ambitions slowing down.
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra last month said the government's
tourism policy would focus on generating 2 trillion baht in revenue within five
years. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports plans to spend 2.6 billion baht on
developing and promoting tourist attractions in 2013.
It hopes to attract 21 million visitors this year, among them big spenders.
"People who enjoy eco-tourism tend to spend a lot of money and we are
definitely targeting that type of tourist," said Chattan Khunjara Na Ayudhya, a
public relations director at TAT.
