1. Kittitorn Kiatpipattanakun
2/12/10
Sheridan P.8
Tourism in Thailand: Sustainable?
“After an hour ferry ride and 5 hours on a bus, we were ready to get off at
our next destination. However, we didn't get off at our intended stop at KoPhang-
na, so we decided to take the bus all the way to Phuket. We ultimately ended up
on Patongbeach and settled into a nice room with refreshing AC. Patong was one
of the places hit by the tsunami last year, and everywhere you looked, new hotels,
sidewalks, and statues were being built. For the most part though, everything
looked like it was just an up and coming tourist town. It was hard to imagine the
devastation that the wave caused, but pictures of the damage were incredible.
Trash and sand everywhere. The water went out so fast that the fish just got
stuck on the sand. One shirt said: "Thailand, 2001 Sars, 2002 Terorist threats,
2003 bird flu, 2004 Tsunami, what's next? But the people here just continue on
with smiles on their faces! One thing I didn't like about this area is the amount of
old men with very young girls. Everywhere! It's just so gross. (Correll)”
Thailand, famous for its silk clothing and elephant rides, blessed for its
green lush forests and clear blue rivers, known for world class cuisines and
bright sincere smiles, have made it one the top country destination in the world.
Its capital city, Bangkok, is ranked third in Euromonitor’s International Top City
Destination Rankings. More than ten million tourists arrived in Thailand in 2008
(Bremner). Such high numbers of visitors are exceptional, but if tourism is not
managed properly, it can destroy its quality. Tourism in Thailand then, will not
be sustainable and can soonsee decline in tourist income. Despite the fact that
tourism in Thailand brings social and economic benefits, it is unsustainable due
to the social, economic, and environmental problem it causes.
The tourism industries have brought huge economic benefits to Thailand.
It has contributed about 567 billion baht to the country’s GDP in 2007
(DIethelm). Medical tourism in Thailand have attracted more than a million
tourist in 2005, generating over US$ 600 million (Teh). Bamrungrad is the first

2. hospital in Southeast Asia to promote medical tourism. Since then, many patients
from the United Kingdom, the United States, and several other European
countries started to be attracted by Thai hospitals due to its friendly
environment and low cost. Furthermore, more than 80% of overseas tourists
come to Thailand to visit Thailand’s seas (Worachananant). Since Thailand is
greatly known to have beautiful seas, islands, and beaches, many tourists who
live in the northern region, especially Europeans, during wintertime will come to
visit Thailand to sunbathe. This will greatly benefit mass tourism and the
economy. Famous beach sites like Phuket, Krabi, and Phangnga generate as much
as 100 billion baht of tourist income, which is 2.9% of Thailand’s GDP. As Phuket,
Krabi, and Phangnga alone generate as much as 17.4% of total tourist income in
Thailand (Israngkura).
Admittedly, tourism brings some economic benefits to Thailand;
nevertheless, many troubling events have shaken Thailand’s tourism industry.
On Saturday 26th of December 2004, there was an earthquake around the island
of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the ritcher scale. This affected main tourists site
like Phuket, Krabi, and Phangnga. The total destruction to private enterprise, loss
of life values, and injuries was 28.4 billion baht. Many aquaculture industries,
like fishing and aqua farms were destroyed in total of 1.8 billion baht
(Israngkura). Another disastrous event was the October 10, 2010 flood which the
ministry of tourism and sports reported that it have impacted at last US$ 1.67
million loss of tourism revenue (Hong’e). Many tourists cancelled bookings in the
severe flooded places like NakornRatchasima, Lopburi, and Ayutthaya. The
outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) on September 11, 2001
worldwide disrupted the economy in Thailand. It was estimated that 31 billion
baht was lost and tourist rate drop by 40.2% (Steinmueller). Furthermore,
Thailand has high political instability since the constitution in 1973 with more
than 23 prime ministers. On April 10, 2010, there was a clash between the
government and the pro-Thaksin protesters; violence emerged in Bangkok with
more than 800 injuries and several dead. The major commercial center,
Ratchaprasong intersection in Bangkok was flooded with red-shirt protestors.
Hotel occupancy dropped by 30% in the area and some tourists were forced to

3. evacuate (Horn). The hotels lost estimating 3-5 million baht a day. The Silom
area lost about 1-3 million a day. This greatly affected tourism by letting out an
image of Thailand as instable and dangerous. Unless the government helps
lessen the impact of catastrophes in Thailand and manage to recover quickly,
tourism in Thailand will not be sustainable.
Tourism in Thailand can bring some social benefits towards local
communities. The road to Khao Yai national park is going to be expanded to a 4-
lane road. This will greatly benefit transportation and easier access to tourist
sites. Restaurants will receive more and faster supplies each day, and resorts can
be built faster with fast material transport time. Furthermore, more people can
come to local village markets and will increase consumers to local farms and
local artifacts (Sea-tm). Some communities based tourism (CBT)is very beneficial
towards local communities, like the one implemented in the Karen Village of
Baan Huay Hee of Mae Hong Son. This project has been very successful since the
Villagersknew how to protect the environment and as a prevention of cultural
degradation, while benefitting from income from tourists (United Nations). The
community will plan their programs themselves, increasing more local
interaction, local development, local economy, and awareness for their own
unique culture (REST). They will feel pride in their culture and would want to
preserve the tradition for future generations. There is one program that
ThaksinShinnawatra used to boost the rural economy while he was in office was
called One Tambon One Product or “OTOP”. This helped Thais living in poverty
to drop from 13 million in 2000 to 7 million in 2004 (Markar). OTOP is a
program that helps local products to be developed and marketed, nation wide
and globally.The president of Chiang Mai’s OTOP association SakdaSiridechakul
said, “OTOP has helped incomes to be spread to many people in the villages. It
has given people [who] produces handicrafts feel [like] they can be part of the
global economy” (Markar). Moreover, tourism greatly brings in chains jobs from
taxi drivers to bartenders (Kianeiam). Tourist sites will attract many service jobs,
which require not much special education.Such as foot massage services that can
be done almost anywhere, from beaches to hotel rooms and walking ways. This

4. requires little education but just simple massage techniques that can be easily
learnt.
Despite that tourism brings some social benefits, it is yet unsustainable
since it increases social problems. Although the fact that there are many
communities based on tourism opportunities, many tourists still would like to
stay in fancy hotels, not in home stays where they cannot order their own food.
While trekking through exotic native villages, the Thai tour guide would explain
the natives’ lives like they are exhibits. The tour guide would say everything for
the native as though they are a rare species of existence, which decreases the
social status of the natives (REST). Moreover, during holidays, many tourist
destinations have overcrowding problems. In Khao Yai national park, there are
insufficient toilets, food court, parking lots, and the traffic is poorly controlled,
which can annoy the local community (Saminpanya). Sometimes tourists would
use toilets in local homes when they cannot find a gas station. When parking lots
are full, tourists tend to park on roads, which can significantly decrease traffic
flow. This becomes worse when the roads leading to tourist sites are unpaved
and narrow, which is common in Thailand. Thirdly, the Vietnam War was a time
when many American soldiers were provided with sex services; tourism in
Thailand boomed, especially sex tourism (Prostitution). Sex tourism in Thailand
became famous but is illegal according to the law. There are continued social
problems dealing with sex tourism and that is because of poorly enforced
prostitution law. The corrupted Thai police, and public official are involved with
mafias who run underground drug and sex trafficking. Many sex workers have
one day off per month and have psychological problems. They have extremely
low self-esteem, self-worth, self-blame, guilt, and depression (Prostitution).
Lastly, the main reason why tourism in Thailand is unsustainable is
because tourismin Thailand is creating more environmental problems. Sewage
disposal facilities in Khao Yai national park can harm the environment
(Saminpanya). If the facility cannot hold a large number of sewage from many
tourists, it will leak and can appear in rivers. Chemical involving in decomposing
sewage may leak out, if the process is not manage properly when the facilities
are over-using. Soon the rivers will be polluted and will affect on beautiful

5. waterfall sites. More than 80% of overseas tourist comes to Thailand to visit the
seas, and an average of two third caused some coral damage by breaking
fragments from fragile coral, an average of 19 breakages per hour of diving. The
cumulative effects of these disturbances can cause significant decline of coral
cover (Worachananant). If the diving tourism industry is to sustain itself, there is
a need to limit the diver’s contact with the corals, or by pre-briefing to the divers.
Once a coral is destroyed, it will not grow back again, and will affect the life cycle
of numerous species of fish. The Thanarat road that leads to Khao Yai national
park is 23 km long, and the engineer had already cut down 128 trees. However,
the Royal forestry department specified only 20 trees to be cut down (Sea-tm).
As of June 2010, it was halted for construction and some engineers are ordered
to face trial in the court. This incident not only show the engineers’ lack of
responsibility, but it may suggest that some group of people wanted the roads to
come by near their places, thus sacrificing the environment to one’s desire. As
long as some people in Thailand will stop being greedy and do small sacrifice to
benefits other, Khao Yai will be a great lush green forest where in the future, it
will always be there.
Although there are some social and economic benefits, tourism in
Thailand is currently unsustainable because of social, economic, and
environmental problems. Overcrowding tourist sites may bring problems to local
communities, sex tourism may bring social problems to sex workers, and native
communities may face the decrease of social status. Political unrest and
worldwide epidemic outbreak will affect Thailand’s tourism industries
negatively. Nature tourist sites risk being destroyed if park managers or the
government act hesitantly to current problems, thus these sites will not be
sustainable and tourists will not come. One shirt says: “2006 coup, 2007 airport
close, 2010 bloodshed, Thailand, it’ll get better.”