"So sorry"....most will not be back and no new one

I'm fearful that world wide public opinion about touring/vacationing in Thailand is set in concrete for a long while. Thailand can do all of the traditional dances at the airport it wants and apologize until it is blue in the face, but the world has seen and will remember the ugly side. Once a country's police and Army refuse to carry out the legitimate orders of the legal government, and that government can't control its public areas the defining points of a failed state have pretty much been achieved. News papers and TV news around the world has laid Thailand out as an out of control dangerous place to visit. It will take years for the family, senior citizen, and student backpacking tourist to return.

The return of the Thailand virgin, in the ways of Thailand single male tourist, will take some extended period of time to return to its once large numbers. The number of new tourist roaming Soi 6, Walking Street, Boyz Town, Sunee Plaza, Soi Twilight or Nana Plaza has been down in recent months. I fear that all but the hottest of the young people who work in these places will shortly be back in a rice patty in Issan.

The gentlemen on this board will see that there are far more boys than farangs. Capitalism being what it is the boys will ask...and then take half or less after a drink and a little smiling during hard nosed..or hard dick...negotiations. When I was there in September the boys were constantly complaining about the lack of customers, and making some interesting and creative offers on their own without even being ask.. I can only imagine how hungry the poor guys are now. Mom and Dad back on the farm don't want excuses they want their son's or daughter's monthly donation.

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[lo-so]

Not so much back in a rice paddy but rather on the internet.

Let the tourists (50k baht two week holiday makers) stay away for the time being. It is now rather good for having frisky boys - even in Soi Twilight, which has been ridiculously overpriced for far too long a number of the bars are finally becoming more negotiable on pricing and smoking policies (apart from the BBB group that the cat will no doubt like with its continuation of a no smoking policy) - elsewhere it is old school again - hurray.

The problem with allowing smoking in bars is that the bar looses as many if not more customers than it gains by allowing smoking. People vote with their feet, and there are far more people who not only don't smoke but hate smoke than there are customers that consider smoking necessary to enjoy a bar. The bar, also, risk a large fine if caught allowing smoking or has to pay added tea money to the police to look the other way when smoking is allowed. Anyway you slice it, allowing smoking cost a bar more in the long run that it can ever hope to gain in added revenue. Realistically smoking in public places is dying...as are the smokers.

[Hmmm]

I fear Soi 10 Tom is right. Thailand does look to the world now like a country out of control. The land of smiles is now the land of warring lunatics. The average tourist, who takes no interest in the political situation in the country they are visiting, now cannot avoid doing so. The government, palace, judiciary, army, and police are seen as corrupt, and unable or unwilling to intervene. That's the last place tourists want to visit, especially new tourists.

On top of that the world's media did not do a good job of distinguishing between mere inconvenience and actual physical danger to tourists. Once the world's attention had been drawn to Thailand by the airport occupations, subsequent news stories often led with stories of explosions and shots fired between the yellows and the reds. These were the same that had been going on for weeks, without any attention from the western media. But friends at home worried about their relatives in Thailand assumed that tourists were in physical danger, which of course was highly unlikely.

We can do a small job of explaining the real situation to friends and family, in fact we will probably have some explaining to do just to justify why WE are going back / staying !

Tourism in Bali recovered several years after the bombings (which killed hundreds), despite the ongoing fears of terrorism, and questionable security measures, because the basic attractions remained. IF the yellows and the reds stay off the streets and a semblance of stability returns, AND Thailand remains a more comfortable and relatively cheap destination in comparison to its competitors, AND the world economic crisis abates, tourists will return, eventually ...

I agree the recent events have done nothing good for Thailand's image, but sending in the troops to quell the protests with the loss of maybe hundreds of lives, as was the way in the old days, would hardly have been good for Thailand's image either.

[Hmmm]

I agree the recent events have done nothing good for Thailand's image, but sending in the troops to quell the protests with the loss of maybe hundreds of lives, as was the way in the old days, would hardly have been good for Thailand's image either.

Agreed, but guarding the airports and government buildings in a way befitting a nation with some sense of national security would avoid the need to evict protesters by force when they hold the country to ransom.

The need to secure the airports properly was the point made by the delegation of foreign diplomats to the Foreign Ministry last week ....
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Foreign-D ... 27518.html

Of course whether the security 'failure' in allowing the PAD to occupy the government building and airports was due to incompetence, or vested interests in letting them have their way, is another matter.

[dab69]

yes I agree here with a downward of tourism from families, but know everyone in THIS forum it really won't affect much.
we know what fun is still available there.

[jimnbkk]

Some thoughts of my own:

Guarding the airports against what the PAD deployed would have taken at least a division of troops. PAD descended in mass. It was not something that could have been easily or even reasonably stopped without loss of life. It's easy now for us to monday-morning-quarterback what should/could have been done, but with the goal of not killing anybody, it's understandable how it played out. I hope Thai airways lawsuit gets traction and PAD has to pay for their riots.

Tourist: Yes, it will hurt tourist traffic for a while. But, if the government can keep themselves out of the international news for even six months, the world will forget what happened here, and next year's tourist season will be as usual.

The oracle has spoken.

....IF the yellows and the reds stay off the streets and a semblance of stability returns, AND Thailand remains a more comfortable and relatively cheap destination in comparison to its competitors, AND the world economic crisis abates, tourists will return, eventually ...

And maybe Pigs will learn to fly too? :snorting:

People have short memories. There will be a brief downturn, then all will be forgotten. Or not, I really don't care.