Has the Tsunami put Thailand on the tourist map?

[Flashermac]

<< they now have a new holiday choice >>

 

 

Oh, yeah ... I can see the TAT slogan now:

 

Tsunami Thailand!

 

Really going to attract a lot of timid folks away from Spain and the Caribbean.

[iuytrede]

>>Thailand is a cheap exotic destinatiom, people, ALL, go there because of that. I would really be surprised to hear that chinese and russian tourists spend more, average, than westerners.

 

 

Chinese come here coz its exotic, not coz its cheap (its not cheap compared to competing travel destinations for Chinese, like Indonesia, Malaysia and so on)

 

About 500 000 mainland Chinese per year (growing fast), 500 000 Taiwanese, plus people from Hong Kong - no single Western country matches these numbers, and these are numbers from 2002. But the destinations are different. Few destinations in Thailand are visited by Asian and Western tourists alike (the Bridge on the river Kwai is an example).

 

And you would be surprised to see how much the Chinese spend.

[CondomKing]

SiamIAm said:

From Stickman weekly:

 

"And for many, in a sort of twisted way, Thailand is now well and truly on the tourist map. Especially for folks from those parts of the world where Thailand was perhaps not so known, they now have a new holiday choice."

 

What parts of the world would that be? Who doesn't know about Thailand already? How can a tidal wave disaster possibly help tourism?

 

Quite a stretch for a different angle on this catastrophy.

[Flashermac]

<< Who doesn't know about Thailand already? >>

 

 

You'd be surprised how many westerners think I live in TAIWAN! And when a friend told his mother he was going to Thailand, she asked "Where is that?" He said Siam. Then she got all excited and started singing "Getting to know you ...".

 

And on the "helping tourism theme:

 

 

Fearful Thais seek peace with spirits

 

The restless spirits of the dead are tormenting the living in Thailand, writes Peter Alford in Patong

 

January 08, 2005

 

THE telephone at the back of the Baan Bang Sak general store rang and rang. Finally, the woman gathered the courage to pick up the handset.

 

She set it down immediately and rushed from the room, through the shop and out under the front awning.

 

"When they answer that phone, they hear screaming, they hear a lady crying," said Am, my Thai interpreter.

 

"Sometimes the lady calls to them and she knows everybody's name here. They don't want to answer that phone."

 

When the calls started on December 27, the family thought they were being hoaxed, although they couldn't imagine anyone doing anything so cruel.

 

But on December 28, a young boy took a call from the crying woman who said she was Jeenda Josakul, a cousin of Sutha, one of the women who ran the shop.

 

Jeenda said her body was at Wat Baang Maruoen (a temple) in Takua Pa. She was soon to be burned and needed someone at the cremation from the family, so her spirit could go quietly to heaven.

 

"Help me, help me," she cried. "I don't want to be burned yet."

 

Sutha resisted at first but later that day went to the temple, where she found Jeenda's body.

 

But still the spirit phone rang. Sometimes the crying voices were those of foreigners. Everyone at the Baan Bang Sak store was -- is -- terrified by those unquiet souls.

 

"In the daytime they know they have to answer because it's usually a normal call for their business," Am said. "But they try not to answer it at night. They sleep together in the same room and when someone has to go to the toilet in the night, someone else stands outside the door.

 

"The Burmese men who worked in the (surrounding) rubber plantation have all run away because they see the phii (ghosts) walking through the trees ... the owner died in the tsunami and they say he cannot rest, maybe he worries about the plantation.

 

"The ladies back there said to me, 'if you don't believe us, you can answer the phone next time'. I didn't want to. I believe in the phii."

 

Almost all Thais do. They believe if people die without the proper Buddhist rites, particularly if they go suddenly and violently, their distressed spirits will wander among the living, crying out for release to heaven.

 

Earlier that day in a field at Baan Nham Khem, where many bodies only recently had lain, we met a senior monk, Phra Kru Nipitsamajan, and his younger protege, Phra Mahaboonma.

 

The monks had driven down from their wat at Songkhla with food, clothing and donations from the people there. More importantly, however, Phra brought spiritual consolation and the ceremonies to calm and release the phii.

 

"I have just spoken to a man in the town," said the elder Phra.

 

"His wife was dead, all his children were gone. I told him he was a fortunate person.

 

"I told him about the families who were all gone. They had no husbands and fathers to make ceremonies for their spirits. But this man can help bring his family peace."

 

On the drive back to Patong that night, Am sat very close.

 

I already knew from what she'd said about driving past other scenes from this catastrophe that she feared the spirits. For her, they were crowding in, calling us to help them find their way.

 

On Thursday, I asked Am if we could write the story. I expected her to object. Instead, she seemed comforted and pleased: "So now you believe about the ghosts?"

 

I said: "I don't not believe as much as I used to."

 

[Peter Alford is The Weekend Australian's Tokyo correspondent. He previously covered Southeast Asia from Bangkok.]

[Lord Toad]

There is one big problem that has almost been over looked here. Thai?s and Asians in general will not go to somewhere where people have been killed.

I believe European tourism will be back in force in Phuket: but they only make up about 30% of Phuket tourism. The main source of tourists are Thai, Taiwanese and in more recent times Chinese. If they will not come back because of ?bad spirits? left by the dead then Phuket is in for a very hard time. Same Phagna but more so.

This will put pressure on elsewhere.

And as for Kho Lak I see little point in rebuilding it. So many died there I do not think even Western Tourists will want to go there.

But cynically Thailand has had massive publicity and that may motivate a few of the curious who have never been here before. And also past visitors may feel they need to came and support the place.

Overall I am sure this is not going to help Thai tourism. And the Thai authorities need to be very careful about getting people back here too soon: before the facilities are ready. I was talking to a major tour operator last night and he said the push to rush tourists back to Phuket is lunacy. One persons dies of Typhoid or similar and the damage will be irreparable. His company will not send anyone to Phuket until they are sure everything is safe: in particular the water.

[pattaya127]

not coz its cheap

----------------------

I doubt it's an expensive destination, though. Chinese may spend a lot, but is it mostly shopping where they start the real expenses (and at that, shopping for stuff cheaper than home?)? And the stuff they buy is usually not the same stuff tourists may or may not buy. But could be the same stuff that thais buy, like jewelry/gold, so maybe here, it's the locals who will help keep the prices competitive. Just a thought.

[pattaya127]

How uncanny, this post from you. I just came back from visiting my thai friend, a guy mostly raised in US, 50/50 with Thailand. No nonsense type, and he mentionned the same thing, and thought also spooky the idea of staying or re-building (if you can help it) in a place where the spirits of the dead are roaming.

 

I don't think he meant that he goes by the spirit world, but his cultural thai background has long impressed on him the potency of spirits, and it's hard for him to want or even care to bring rational thinking into it.

 

It was just a great conversation to learn how he was still very much relating to the irrational in his thai culture.

 

As i joked that then there would be some good cheap land to purchase, he asked me if i thought americans, french or europeans cared about that sort of things. To which i replied some, but mostly, if there is a good deal to be had, most unlikely.

 

Another thing that impressed me is that he had a donation box on the counter (we were in his restaurant) for victims of the tsunami, and he gave me back 10$ that he owed me, and naturally, I put it in the box.

 

Somehow, he showed more gratitude than was required for dropping a mere 10 in that box. Just the simple act of giving resonated strongly in him , and this is the first time i heard him talking about Buddhism (usually it's me doing that ) . I just realized how deep certain things run in a thai's blood, a thai's heart (the gratitude, the giving, the courtesy), though some may wave it off as superficial.

 

thanks for giving me the opportunity to relate that experience.

[chelseafan]

Good point, look what happened to Phi Phi after the film the beach was shown.....

Suddenly a tranquil, idyillic island, not known to many, became a large tourist desitnation....

[chelseafan]

Ranger said:

I don't think Thailand will ever be a major tourist destination for Americans, other than sex tourists and world traveler types. Most people won't bother with the 24 hour travel time required and 2-3 plane changes when they can be on a beach in Mexico or the Carribean in 3-4 hours.

 

Ranger

 

70% of Americans never leave the US....

[Flashermac]

<< 70% of Americans never leave the US.... >

 

 

Do you realise how many people you are talking about? You'd be hard pressed to fit 70% of the US population into the UK or most European countries, if they all did decide to visit at once!