In Bangkok, there’s still a lot to love

By Yeoh Siew Hoon

“Now that we are in Bangkok, we don’t hear the news anymore,” said my girlfriend as we were shopping at Central, Chidlom.

And that, my friends, is the truth of the matter. Once you are there, you don’t see or feel anything.

But when you are not, and you are watching the news on television and receiving constant news feeds on your mobile, well, you get the feeling that Bangkok is a city under siege by the red, yellow or blue people and it’s best to stay away.

We had planned the trip a few weeks ahead and we came close to calling it off when ASEAN’s politicians had to be whisked away by helicopter from the summit they were supposed to be attending in Pattaya and deliberating about the very problems that they ended up running away from.

Then the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an advisory, advising Singaporeans not to go to Bangkok unless absolutely necessary.

But because we felt it was absolutely necessary that we have a nice, long break in Thailand, we went.

And we did absolutely the right thing. We had never been in a city under "a state of emergency" before and when I asked my Bangkok friends what it meant, I got different answers. It didn’t matter – I didn’t feel any emergency at all.

Those who know Bangkok well know life goes on as normal in the city and that if you stay away from the problem areas, you are pretty safe.

The problem is, the seizure of the airports still leaves ugly memories for a lot of people and the fact is, no one knows when something like that could happen again.

If protestors can disrupt a political gathering enough for a high-level summit to be called off, they can pretty much do anything they want to.

Like it or not, that’s the perception people have of Bangkok today and like oil and water, uncertainty and tourism do not mix.
Throw into that mix the global financial troubles and the huge cutbacks in corporate-related business, and you have a situation where Thai tourism is slowly being strangled to death.

Talking to industry insiders on the ground, estimates are that business is down anything from 30% to 50%. Some are worse hit than others, but no one is spared.

Business from North Asia has been worst hit – the three big markets of China, Japan and Korea have shrunk. India and the Middle East appear to be holding, I am told. Longhaul is also down, of course.

Domestic tourism is giving resorts outside Bangkok some respite but, in terms of yield, one hotelier told me for every foreign guest, you need three local customers.

Whatever recovery was made after the airport seizure was undone by the recent outbreaks of violence. One hotelier called it "the nail in the coffin" but I think that’s too extreme a comment.

He was probably over-emotional from the cancellations he had received that very morning.

I have to say though it’s the worst shape I have ever seen Thailand in. There’s always been a natural buoyancy about this land of smiles that lifts you as a visitor but the burden of its troubles is beginning to show.

You feel the weariness and the frustration. How do you promote tourism to a country that’s in such a political quandary?

You can spend millions of dollars advertising it’s safe but such messages sound hollow after a while.

You can invite travel agents and journalists on fam trips to show them how safe it is, but that holds true only for the time they are there …

You can hand out incentives and subsidies to tour operators but will their customers bite?

Truth is, confidence has been lost and it’s hard to sell something as intangible as travel without confidence. True, there are no guarantees in life but when people buy a holiday or organise a business event, they at least want a level of comfort.

Everyone I talked to seems to have resigned themselves to the situation. “I don’t lose sleep over it anymore,” said one. “It is what it is and we have to do the best we can.”

The best means minimising losses, managing costs and cash flow and trying to hold onto staff as much as they can.
"Retrenchment is the last resort," said one general manager of an independent hotel. "We will use this time to renovate and send our staff for training."

Yes, in times like these, it is always best to focus on what you can do and what you can influence and not worry about external factors beyond your control.

And it seems to me that, in these times, Thailand could do well to focus its efforts on those who know the country well and who know that, as with everything else, this too will pass.

These are the people who can tell their friends go "sanuk" in Thailand with confidence because, believe me, everything you’ve always loved about the country is still there.

The massages are great, the food is fantastic and the bargains are awesome.

Spread the word.

Catch Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe

Footnote: Since Siew Hoon’s visit to Bangkok, the state of emergency has been lifted.