Why Thailand has more tourists

Tuesday, 14 August 2012 20:31 George S. Chua / Free Enterprise

I HAVE had the chance to go to Thailand on a number of occasions over a period of many years and most recently just a few days ago.  I could not help but wonder why it seems that they have more tourists than we do and just to be sure, I checked out the statistics. Yes, indeed. Thailand has a much more significant number of tourists than the Philippines.

Based on the statistics, there were 3.52 million tourist arrivals in the Philippines in 2010 and 3.9 million in 2011, posting a growth rate of 10.8 percent.  Thailand had 15.91 million tourist arrivals in 2010 and 18.89 million in 2011 for a growth rate of 18.73 percent.  Not only does Thailand have significantly more tourists than the Philippines, but they have also managed to grow at a much faster rate than we have, indicating that the tourism gap will get even much wider.

There must be a number of reasons why visitors prefer Thailand over the Philippines but I am certainly not in a position to tell you what all those reasons are.  However, there are a number of things that I noticed particularly in Bangkok that is quite different from Metro Manila which may cause this preference.  

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One of the things I immediately noticed as I go inside any office building, department store, shopping mall or other facility, was that there were no security guards frisking you, checking on your bags and no vehicle trunk inspection.  This certainly is a much more pleasant experience than having to stand in line and have a stranger touch you. Of course, one might argue that the screening process you go through at airports is much more exhaustive, but then again, you really have no choice on the matter.

Perhaps, this constant unpleasant experience is taking its toll and tourists are voting with their wallets.  I noticed that other famous tourist destination spots like Hong Kong or Singapore also do not frisk or check people going into public places, much like in the US or other European countries.  Having myself frisked and my belongings checked all the time is not something that I like and I am sure other tourists feel the same way.  Tourists who come from the more developed countries probably think that this is an invasion of their privacy and may certainly be cause for worry that the Philippines is a riskier place that would necessitate these checks.

Seeing how the security guards do their rather superficial inspection, we should question how effective this really is.  Are we doing more harm than good by turning off tourists with all this checking and giving the negative impression about all these checks that we have to do this because if we didn’t, something bad will happen?  The government should make a study and look if all of these checkings are indeed effective and also see what is the number of violent incidents that occur in buildings in other countries where the practice of frisking and walking through metal detectors is not common practice.   How is it possible other countries are able to get away with all these inspections and yet there are no mass bombings and violence in all these places?

Another glaring difference that I noticed is the more efficient public transport system that they have that everyone including the tourists and other visitors use all the time.  Over here, the only real mass transport system we have is the LRT and the MRT, and even then they need to be drastically improved.  During rush hour, the line is so long that you literally have to stand in line outside of the station, sometimes even in the rain.  The routes and connections are also limited and very difficult for the use by most tourists.

In Bangkok, they have the overhead trains called the BTS and the underground trains called the MTR.  They can handle the rush-hour traffic and even during off-peak times, you only need to wait for a few minutes to get a ride.  You can go to literally any place of interest in Bangkok using their mass transport system at a reasonable cost, in comfort and speed.  While the road traffic situation in Bangkok is not much better than in the Metro Manila, their mass transportation system is certainly much better in all aspects.

Let us start on working on these issues so that our tourists can truly say that it’s more fun in the Philippines.  Actually, it will also be more fun for us people living here.