• 
• 

I particularly sympathise with the producers and exporters of flowers, orchids, and fruits, who faced a big loss since these products were stuck at the airports, rotten and wasted. Everyone has to hold back their rage and hasten to negotiate with the regular buyers to forego their claim for non delivery and to secure more orders. Some are successful while some are not. Some have to sell at the reduced price or at more lenient terms and conditions. Some have to sell without profit or even at a loss just to keep their regular customers. I wish all these exporters have the strength to carry on. I believe that their persistent effort would finally regain all the business back within not-so-long a period of time.

The manufacturers and exporters of electronic goods, which are normally air-freighted, were also affected as their products could not be delivered in time for further production during the airport closure. Now, even if the airport is up and running, the buyers are still reluctant to buy from manufacturers in Thailand as they cannot be rest assured that this situation might not occur again. Our manufacturers have to put much effort to win their customers back. I wish all of them success.

The industry most affected from the airport closure is the tourism industry. The cause for the seizure of the airport is quite irrational and this irrationality made foreigners nervous that it may happen again. Up to now, the authorities in charge of internal security of the country have not made any move to show to the world that they possess enough capability to prevent such an incident. Fear that this type of incident might arise all over again is leading foreigners to stay away from Thailand for a while.

I have observed a lot of good initiative of the authorities in tourism promotion, ranging from hospitable treatments for foreign travellers to preparation to explain to the world to gain back the confidence of tourists and tour operators in our airport service. There are also other actions of these tourism promotion authorities that are worth praise. However, these promotion actions are not enough. It is totally necessary that the authorities on the internal security of the state, namely police and military, must make concrete moves to convince the world that they are really capable of preventing such an incident. We have not seen any movement in this direction up to now. Normally, we do have annual military drill for national defence. Should we also arrange for terrorist attack drills to prevent or handle terrorist attacks or seizure of various places that affect national security and/or economy as a whole? In the past, we might think that a drill of this kind was not necessary since it should not happen to have anyone who would cause such comparable detriment to the nation.

But, nowadays, it did occur. If such an incident would occur for a second time, nobody would ever forgive the authorities on internal security ever again.

Even though we have made all the moves to convince the world as suggested above, it still takes some time before foreign tourists and the business of foreign tour operators would be back to the previous level. It may take six months, one year or even two years - no one knows. In the meantime, we must take care of our tourism industry, keep our tour destinations active and provide business for those who live on tourism. Our tourism industry has been developing for a long time and has become the industry that attracts the highest foreign exchange income. We must keep them alive, keep them operating so that they are ready for the return of a great number of foreign tourists as it used to be.

The only solution to keep our tourism industry alive at this very moment is to persuade Thais to travel much more to destinations in Thailand. The new government and the tourism authorities have to be obliged to implement the "Thai tour Thai" campaign. I am not denying an effort to re-establish the confidence of foreign tourists and foreign tour operators, which must go on. However, such effort would take time. We, therefore, need to rely on the "Thai tour Thai" strategy to add business for the existing tourism industry in the meantime. I have been quite close to the tourism business and have gone to a lot of interesting places in various provinces all over our country. They are as fascinating as tourist destinations overseas.

At the current stage of economy in Thailand, the incomes of Thais do allow for travelling as a part of consumption for quality life. When the world economy is in recession and our growth is slowing down, it is appropriate to cut down overseas travelling and it is an opportune time to offer them inland travelling instead.

The effective use of the budget for this "Thai tour Thai" strategy would be more beneficial to our tourism industry than to inject financial help to problematic companies in the industry since this strategy would add more tourists and consequently business volume for various businesses in the industry to keep them operating; more guests for hotel occupancy; more business for restaurants and more buyers for vendors.

The additional volume of business from inland tourists may not compensate for the loss from foreign tourists, but it can still prevent tourism business from closing down while waiting for the return of foreign tourists.

Who should do what in the "Thai tour Thai" strategy will be the subject of my next Monday article.