AMARETTO-old
August 16th, 2006, 16:39
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The booming city in northern Thailand finds progress comes at a price, writes Charlotte Gibson
Foreigners who ventured to Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai in the backpacker heydays of the 1970s found a sleepy city dotted with temples and a handful of homely guesthouses.
Fast forward 30 years and the old temples remain, but sprouting up around them are five-star hotels and extravagant resorts, leaving locals divided over the benefits for the historic city.
Lonely Planet author and long-time Chiang Mai resident Joe Cummings first visited the city in 1977, and recalls a sleepy town with few facilities for the modern tourist.
"It was dead at night. There were some dodgy bars, but there wasn't much entertainment for tourists," says the American. "It has really gone upscale, especially in the last five years."
In 1986, 19,000 international visitors passed through Chiang Mai airport. Last year, the figure was 176,000.
But with the boom comes consequences, and people are concerned about the environmental, social and economic impact on the ancient city.
"The government is pushing too much for tourists when we should preserve our city for the locals," says Duongchan Apavatjrut Charoenmuang, a researcher at Chiang Mai University's Social Research Institute.
"More people means more garbage and more traffic jams."
The first sign of the impending luxury hotel explosion was the opening of a Four Seasons hotel in 1995.
In 2001 Chiang Mai native Thaksin Shinawatra was elected prime minister, and has been keen to promote his home town as a tourist draw, instigating projects including the US$24 million (HK$187.2 million) Night Safari.
Chiang Mai's transformation was confirmed in 2005 with the opening of the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Devi. The US$100 million resort stretches over 24 hectares and contains six restaurants, a cooking school, an art and craft village, and its own market.
Resorts such as these worry local people, who say they encourage tourists to eat, sleep and shop in one location rather than at locally run businesses.
Eleanor Hardy, general manager of Chedi Chiang Mai, a boutique hotel that opened earlier this year, concedes that the bigger hotels can have an impact, but says that at the smaller Chedi, people are keen to experience local culture.
"People want to see authentic Chiang Mai, and we are not. We are a five-star hotel," she says.
Hardy thinks that moneyed travelers are heading to Chiang Mai after tiring of the well-trodden southern beach destinations.
"Chiang Mai is relatively untouched by development and commercialization," she says. "It still has a feeling of old Siam."
Viparwan Chaiprakorb, who works at the popular Maesa elephant camp just outside Chiang Mai, says she too has seen an influx of wealthy tourists searching for a bit of authenticity.
"They get a private jet from the US, stay at the Four Seasons and hire the camp," she says.
"On the one hand they want to see something primitive, but they stay in the Four Seasons and come in their Gucci and Louis Vuitton."
Although Viparwan is glad of the money tourists bring, she also sees a downside to the flourishing luxury sector. The elephants used to play in the river, she says, but now rubbish from new resorts prevents that.
"There is garbage, they have a difficult time getting rid of it," she says. "The quality of water has gone down and we have had floods. The draining system is bad."
Local residents are also concerned that the encroachment of the city into the surrounding forest is destroying natural flood defenses, causing increasing destruction during the rainy season. At the end of July, some 5,900 homes flooded after torrential rains.
But the five-star boom shows no sign of abating. The Chedi and two other high-end hotels have opened in the past year, and a Shangri-La hotel will open in 2007.
Sandy Morowitz, a backpacker from the United States who spent the day at Maesa elephant camp, says she found it difficult to get off the tourist track in Chiang Mai, but believes that change will be for the good.
"Thailand is not only going to be for backpackers, it is going to be for the rich who want spas, five-star treatments, and elephant rides on nice seats," she says.
But Seksan Sutthana, a Chiang Mai local, questions whether tourists will still be drawn to the city when sprawling shopping malls and high-rise buildings dwarf the traditional sights.
There are 300 temples dotted in and around Chiang Mai. Travelers also flock to the ancient city for its relaxing atmosphere, which is a welcome respite from buzzing Bangkok.
"The charm of Chiang Mai is the nice areas, the nice people, everything is natural," says Seksan.
"Now, everywhere tourists go they see American food like KFC and Swensens. Once everything from the US is opened up here, there is no difference between their home town and here. Why would they come?"
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The booming city in northern Thailand finds progress comes at a price, writes Charlotte Gibson
Foreigners who ventured to Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai in the backpacker heydays of the 1970s found a sleepy city dotted with temples and a handful of homely guesthouses.
Fast forward 30 years and the old temples remain, but sprouting up around them are five-star hotels and extravagant resorts, leaving locals divided over the benefits for the historic city.
Lonely Planet author and long-time Chiang Mai resident Joe Cummings first visited the city in 1977, and recalls a sleepy town with few facilities for the modern tourist.
"It was dead at night. There were some dodgy bars, but there wasn't much entertainment for tourists," says the American. "It has really gone upscale, especially in the last five years."
In 1986, 19,000 international visitors passed through Chiang Mai airport. Last year, the figure was 176,000.
But with the boom comes consequences, and people are concerned about the environmental, social and economic impact on the ancient city.
"The government is pushing too much for tourists when we should preserve our city for the locals," says Duongchan Apavatjrut Charoenmuang, a researcher at Chiang Mai University's Social Research Institute.
"More people means more garbage and more traffic jams."
The first sign of the impending luxury hotel explosion was the opening of a Four Seasons hotel in 1995.
In 2001 Chiang Mai native Thaksin Shinawatra was elected prime minister, and has been keen to promote his home town as a tourist draw, instigating projects including the US$24 million (HK$187.2 million) Night Safari.
Chiang Mai's transformation was confirmed in 2005 with the opening of the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Devi. The US$100 million resort stretches over 24 hectares and contains six restaurants, a cooking school, an art and craft village, and its own market.
Resorts such as these worry local people, who say they encourage tourists to eat, sleep and shop in one location rather than at locally run businesses.
Eleanor Hardy, general manager of Chedi Chiang Mai, a boutique hotel that opened earlier this year, concedes that the bigger hotels can have an impact, but says that at the smaller Chedi, people are keen to experience local culture.
"People want to see authentic Chiang Mai, and we are not. We are a five-star hotel," she says.
Hardy thinks that moneyed travelers are heading to Chiang Mai after tiring of the well-trodden southern beach destinations.
"Chiang Mai is relatively untouched by development and commercialization," she says. "It still has a feeling of old Siam."
Viparwan Chaiprakorb, who works at the popular Maesa elephant camp just outside Chiang Mai, says she too has seen an influx of wealthy tourists searching for a bit of authenticity.
"They get a private jet from the US, stay at the Four Seasons and hire the camp," she says.
"On the one hand they want to see something primitive, but they stay in the Four Seasons and come in their Gucci and Louis Vuitton."
Although Viparwan is glad of the money tourists bring, she also sees a downside to the flourishing luxury sector. The elephants used to play in the river, she says, but now rubbish from new resorts prevents that.
"There is garbage, they have a difficult time getting rid of it," she says. "The quality of water has gone down and we have had floods. The draining system is bad."
Local residents are also concerned that the encroachment of the city into the surrounding forest is destroying natural flood defenses, causing increasing destruction during the rainy season. At the end of July, some 5,900 homes flooded after torrential rains.
But the five-star boom shows no sign of abating. The Chedi and two other high-end hotels have opened in the past year, and a Shangri-La hotel will open in 2007.
Sandy Morowitz, a backpacker from the United States who spent the day at Maesa elephant camp, says she found it difficult to get off the tourist track in Chiang Mai, but believes that change will be for the good.
"Thailand is not only going to be for backpackers, it is going to be for the rich who want spas, five-star treatments, and elephant rides on nice seats," she says.
But Seksan Sutthana, a Chiang Mai local, questions whether tourists will still be drawn to the city when sprawling shopping malls and high-rise buildings dwarf the traditional sights.
There are 300 temples dotted in and around Chiang Mai. Travelers also flock to the ancient city for its relaxing atmosphere, which is a welcome respite from buzzing Bangkok.
"The charm of Chiang Mai is the nice areas, the nice people, everything is natural," says Seksan.
"Now, everywhere tourists go they see American food like KFC and Swensens. Once everything from the US is opened up here, there is no difference between their home town and here. Why would they come?"
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE