What makes you want to visit a country _ exotic foods, exotic cultures and exotic structures or something modern and potentially sinful that you can find anywhere else?
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s relentless promotion of “soft power” referred to the former. Her support for “Entertainment complex” that may include a major casino involves the latter.
It’s a no-brainer which one is more sustainable when tourism is concerned, and which one requires next-to-zero investment because we already have it.
What’s wrong with Thailand having both then? What’s wrong with promoting cultural assets and sophisticated, universal convenience plus grandeur at the same time?
Morals aside, money is what is primarily wrong. Entertainment complex requires a huge investment and it’s highly debatable if what is invested would be worth it.
If you were Americans, who already have Disneyland, can watch the US Open tournaments every year and go to Taylor Swift concerts as often as you like, would you come to Thailand because it has a so-called entertainment complex?
If you were Singaporeans, who are already spoiled by world-class accommodation facilities, would an entertainment complex influence your choice or tourist destinations? If you were Britons, who are familiar with betting shops on every street, would you be excited by a casino in Thailand?
If you were Chinese, who commute to work past immense structures every day, would you be impressed by a Thai complex that might be even smaller and less state-of-the-art than what you see on a daily basis in your own country?
Why do Malaysians keep coming to Thailand in spite of Genting Malaysia? Why are Singaporeans doing the same although they have Marina Bay Sand? How many visitors to Galaxy Macau, who go there to gamble, would come to Thailand instead because we have a casino?
Would Thais planning to visit America, with Las Vegas among the destinations, cancel their programmes thinking “Why do I have to go overseas because we have our own entertainment complex?”?
In other words, tourism is seeing things you can’t see in your own neighbourhood. Therefore, building an entertainment complex to promote tourism does not make much sense investment-wise, taking away the moral questions concerning the casino and what potential funding could do for Thai education and agricultural development.
Now, the soft power. When Paetongtarn said it, there was a glimpse of hope because Thailand has all aplenty. Now that her government is trumpeting an entertainment complex, that glimpse of hope is turning into a major doubt. The concepts are clashing badly.
What politicians do is sell their “dreams” or try to make people believe that what they are selling are public dreams, too. An entertainment complex will not benefit men on the street but an idea is being put in ordinary citizens’ heads that it will be their pride and a source of national wealth.
Truth is that a major tennis championship organised in Thailand will not be something the nation will be proud of. Five years later the world will only remember who won it, not who organised it. And incomes from ticket sales will go to maintenances of the complex, not making Thai farmers richer.
It will be a rich house in a poor neighbourhood. The residents outside that rich house will not watch it with a sense of pride. Rather, they will feel greater injustice and inequality.
Thailand can ill afford an entertainment complex. This is a country that Paetongtarn’s political party described during its last general election campaign as facing serious economic troubles, meaning it cannot take financial risks. This is a country that is already on top of the tourist destinations list thanks to its people, cultures, mountains and beaches, not sport tournaments, so-called “expos” or amusement parks.
This is a country whose population, according to Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai Party itself, is so poor that the government needs to give Bt10,000 to each “vulnerable” individual.
Politics aside, this is a country that sells wholehearted smiles, not shrieks of concert goers. This is a country that takes pride in its street foods, not elegant restaurants. This is a country where foreign tourists love homestays, not luxurious hotel rooms.
They love sincere rural behaviours, not sweet and pretentiously polite words of the PR at a giant, polished complex.
We are a country that makes exquisite bamboo crafts. (One tambon, one product, remember?) Let’s stick with that and let other nations worry about sending people to the outer space.
