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TOURISM
Chatrudee Theparat
Tourism operators are hopeful that the surprise ceasefire announced this week by the so-called Thailand United Southern Underground (TUSU) could bring peace back to the three southernmost provinces and help revive tourism in the border region.
"Tourism activities in those provinces were completely zero for years. The ceasefire announcement should be a very good sign for the Thai tourism industry if it was true," said Anake Srishevachart, the president of the Thai-Japan Tourist Association.
"Safety is the first priority for foreign visitors making decisions about travel."
But security experts and armed forces commanders have played down the reported ceasefire, which increasingly looks to be a hoax on Chetta Thanajaro, a former army chief and now the leader of the Ruam Jai Thai Pattana party. Gen Chetta requested Channel 5 broadcast a video clip of three members of the TUSU announcing the ceasefire.
More than 3,000 people have died in the three majority Muslim border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat since 2004.
Mr Anake said the violence in the provinces and oil prices were the main factors weighing on tourist growth.
Phornsiri Manoharn, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said the three provinces were popular destinations among Singaporeans, Malaysians, Hong Kong and Chinese residents.
Singaporean and Malaysian tourists often crossed through the provinces by rail or road on their way to travel to other provinces in southern Thailand. The Thailand-Malaysia border is also the gateway that links the Asean countries to the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Maiyarat Pheerayakoses, president of the Association of Domestic Travel, said tourism destinations in the three restive provinces are very interesting both for their natural beauty and culture. She said the conflicts caused zero growth in tourism in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat for five or six years and expanded to affect tourism in nearby provinces of Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
TAT statistics showed that arrivals of Malaysian tourists via Suvarnabhumi airport were 171,278 in the first five months this year, a rise of 21%, with Singaporeans rising 23.65% to 186,121.
In 2007, there were 551,959 Malaysian visitors to Thailand, down 1.69% from the year before, while Singaporean visitors totalled 799,100 last year, down 2.33%. Total Asean visitors for 2007 were 3.75 million, up 5.6%. Experts expect only 10,000 more Thai visitors to the South in 2008, reaching 6.95 million.
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