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to France, but its economic condition is that of a
Third World country.
Thailand was an absolute monarchy until 1932.
Ironically, it was the efforts to democratise that led
to the persistent involvement of the military in Thai
politics. Coups against civilian governments have
been common for over sixty years, and military
regimes have been frequent. For the most part,
these transfers of powers have not been bloody.
Thus, despite the general truism that political
instability depresses tourism, this industry has
flourished alongside the political upheaval and
can even be said to have developed as a
consequence of regional instability.
The Tourism Organisation of Thailand began
in 1960 as a minor tourism marketing arm of the
government. The country was at that time
receiving only 100,000 tourists a year. That
changed as the Vietnam War escalated and nearby
Thailand became a rest and recreation base for
American troops and allies. Bars, nightclubs and
prostitution �officially illegal) skyrocketed. The
Thai tourism base moved from its largely cultural
orientation to a more tawdry but lucrative
orientation on sex and recreation.
By the mid-1970s, when the war ceased, Thai
tourism had more than one million arrivals
annually and was no longer dependent on the
soldiers. However, it retained an emphasis on sex
tourism in the major cities catering to business
tourists and unattached males. During most of the
time since the war, over 75 per cent of the tourists
to Thailand have been males. This dependence on
male tourists has created a dilemma for the Thai
government, which is trying to find a way to
diversify its tourism market without jeopardising
its receipts from this industry.
The country's abundant attractions have become
well known. Culturally oriented tourists can
visit some of the world's most attractive Buddhist
temples. The hill tribes of northern Thailand have
become both a destination and a production
centre for quality handicrafts. Thai silks, gems and
other specialities have a ready market in the
growing tourism trade. In the last fifteen years,
however, the major tourism growth has come in
the southern beach communities. As infrastructure
has improved, Pattaya and Phuket are but
two of the cities to experience tremendous growth.
Thailand 577
Tourism has become increasingly important to
the economy, surpassing rice in 1982 as the leading
industry. Growth has been quite impressive. In
1996, Thailand welcomed over seven million
visitors, a 3.6 per cent increase over 1995. Tourism
receipts were up nearly 132 per cent to $8.6 billion
over the year before. Thailand ranks thirteenth
among the world's nations in the amount earned
annually from tourism. These figures do not
include the growing receipts from domestic
tourism. Often, developing nations are assumed
to have little or no domestic tourism. That is not
the case in Thailand. By 1987, there were more
than 8.7 million domestic tourists in the country.
Their contribution to the economy has not been
precisely measured. Domestic tourism does not
bring in foreign exchange, but by 1983 the
government listed it as one of its major planning
goals.
Since the Third National Social Development
Plan �1972±6), tourism development has been a
central part of economic planning. The Tourism
Authority of Thailand, established by Parliament in
1979, has overall responsibility for this industry, but
the private sector successfully resisted efforts of this
agency to significantly regulate the industry. In
recent years, the Thai government has privatised
its national airline, Thai International, and has
allowed the private sector both incentives and
considerable freedom in tourism development.
That is in keeping with the post-Cold War ideology
of deregulation, decentralisation and privatisation,
but it has been a mixed blessing for orderly tourism
development.
Tourism has major problems; the same deregulation
the industry fought against has resulted in
ruinous hotel-building sprees. Crippling traffic
congestion and air pollution in Bangkok threatens
future tourism development, particularly largescale
convention business. Opposition to
government controls has made once beautiful
seaside cities into planners' nightmares. Environmental
degradation is coupled with enormous
social problems associated with tourism.
The incidence of AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases has soared. The government
was reluctant to acknowledge the spread of these
until recently, fearing it would discourage tourism.
Increasingly, it has launched education campaigns