A recent crisis in tourism in Thailand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

A recent crisis in tourism in Thailand - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is Thailand as the second –largest player in the tourism sector in the region and one of the top 30 destinations in the globe both in indirect and direct contributor to GDP and in absolute terms. In 2010, 15.8m foreign tourists visited Thailand. However, the arrival of the foreign tourist sharply declined by 12.9% in May 2010 as contrasted the corresponding period in 2009. In the last two decades, Thailand had witnessed one after another worst crisis. The decline in numbers in 2010 was due to long-run street protests in Bangkok that dispirited the foreign tourists. In the fag end of the year 2011, Thailand met with another crisis – unprecedented flood, which devastated its economy and tourism sector. Thailand has been regarded as one of the South-East Asia’s largest economies and has been reckoned as one of the regions’ preferred destination for investments. In the background of global economic downturn and political turb ulence it witnessed in 2010, the country is slowly recovering on strong phases. While the tourism industry prolongs to contribute a major part of its export revenues and is set for further growth in 2012 as well and there has been a visible increase in its export revenues but in the fag end of the year 2011, Thailand met with another crisis – unprecedented flood, which devastated its economy and tourism sector. Tourism has been regarded as one of the largest sectors of the Thailand’s economy and a major foreign-currency earner.... (Oxford Publishing Group, 2009, p.131). This research essay will analyse the various crises witnessed by the Thai’s tourism industry and recent havoc flood in 2011 and how it has impacted the tourist industry of Thailand and suggest means to devise suitable strategies to mitigate the future crises from impacting the Thailand’s tourists industry. Analysis In 2010, 15.8m foreign tourists visited Thailand. However, the arrival of the foreign tourist sharply declined by 12.9% in May 2010 as contrasted the corresponding period in 2009. The decline in numbers in 2010 was due to long-run street protests in Bangkok that dispirited the foreign tourists. As WTTC report 2011, tourism industry directly contributed BT 617.7bn or 5.8% of its economy. (Oxford Publishing Group, 2011). If one look at the above graph, Thailand’s economy had performed since Q4/2008 moderately when compared neighbouring nations like Hong Kong and Singapore but its performance was poor as compared to Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Jitsuchon & Patanarangsun, 2009, p.2). The number of foreign tourist visited Thailand was at its peak in January 2008 but dipped to very low level in 2009. Despite the fact that the Thailand’s very positive future outlook for long-run growth , both 2008 , 2009 and 2011 were the toughest years for the Thai’s tourism industry due to political turmoil that occurred both in Pattaya and in Bangkok in April 2009 and devastating floods in 2011. (Jitsuchon & Patanarangsun, 2009, p.6). WTTCs benchmark estimations of Thailand’s tourism effect on its economy which has taken account of the wider input of tourism both indirect and direct across all sections. Hence, it is estimated that the tourist industry’s net contribution to Thailand’s