BCCT Tourism conference and Thailand’s black economy
I want to say right at the start of this article that I love Thailand and chose to live here, when I could have lived anywhere in the world. I chose Thailand and now proudly call it my home.
Before I launched Expat Life in Thailand I went as an interested guest to a BCCT (British Chamber of Commerce Thailand) conference at the Landmark Hotel on Sukhumvit.
Various industry luminaries were on the stage including Prab Thakral from the Boutique Corporation Public Company Limited and Andrew Langdon who was invigilating, then at Knight Frank.
It was quite interesting but when one of the experts stated that tourism only contributes 11% to Thailand’s GDP, I could not understand where they had drawn the parameters.
I waited anxiously until they invited questions from the audience and stood up and asked that question.
I said that “I could not understand why the Thais always downplayed the contribution that international visitors, and expat residents, received from the international community”.
There then followed the usual blah, blah, about Thailand as a rice exporter, how wonderful Thailand was at exporting rubber, fruit, prawns, seafood, motor parts and accessories, etc. They argued for the 11% claim, which I am sorry but I disregarded then and I disregard now as utter bollocks…
“It might be in terms of hotel rooms, I countered but what about travel, tourism and hospitality – the restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, tour agencies, taxis, massage shops, 7/11’s, the shopping malls, street vendors, the girls in the bars, beggars on the streets, etc”. All of the ancillary businesses, many of them on the black market, that do not pay tax or have their incomes accounted for.
Since then I have seen many claims like the following: Thailand’s economy is reliant on international tourism, a once flourishing sector that has been impacted by pandemic restrictions.
However this phrase is still on the UN’s website ‘Tourism is a major economic contributor to Thailand, with tourist receipts accounting for 11.5% of GDP in 2019’ – sorry but this figured is not correct.
We only have to see how the country suffered in the pandemic. Drive through the streets of Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and the exotic islands and see how their economy fared when international visitors were unable to visit Thailand. The country was on it’s knees… major tourist thoroughfares became desolate.
I contend that Thailand would still be a third-world country without the important economic input from both international visitors and residents alike.
But Thais being very proud people are oddly ‘entitled’. They all sing at 8am and at 6pm the National anthem which includes the phrase ‘Thailand is for the Thais, and always will be’.
They all seem to think that we owe them a big debt of gratitude when we come to visit or live here. They forget to realise that if it wasn’t for us – most of them would’nt have a job.
If you need any confirmation of this check and see what happened at the height of Covid-19 on the dark underbelly, black market that Thailand lives by. Suddenly large swathes of the female population were advertising themselves online and not just for washing and ironing clothes.
It is no wonder that Thailand is one of the highest in terms of road deaths per capita as there are some awful drivers in Thailand. They don’t care about anyone else and they are all so full of their own importance. They are not going to stop for people crossing the roads – even if they are on a zebra crossing. It’s seems to be a loss of face if they have to stop for anyone.
The Thais all rave about their wonderful automobile and accessories industry. But they do not manufacture any cars, they have just assembly plants, so where would they be without the big four Japanese, BMW, Mercedes, etc.
If you ever doubt what expats have contributed to Thailand, take a domestic flight to any backwater in the country, and watch the lady falang getting off the aircraft dutifully followed by old men falang. The girls would have grown up in corrugated iron shacks and houses with outside toilets, but since meeting their Prince Charming falang they now have houses, cars, new motorcycles, and the latest iPhones. They had holes in their knickers until then…
Thais are always quick to say that have never been colonised. What about when the Japanese came ashore at Prachaup Khiri Khan in 1941:
On 8 December 1941, less than four hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor Japan invaded Thailand. After several hours of fighting between Thai and Japanese troops, Thailand acceded to Japanese demands for passage through the country for Japanese forces invading Burma and Malaya.
They don’t count this, as the Thais have erased it from their history books.
They do not realise that the only reason that they were not colonised by the French or the British as Thailand was kept as a buffer zone between the two powers at the time. I acknowledge that times have changed now…
SE Asia is the powerhouse now – but that’s mainly due to China and to a lesser extent Japan and South Korea. Thailand is not the world power that the Thais seem to think it is.
Your contrasting views are welcomed but please remember I love Thailand.
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