If we kept a record of the most frequently applied rationale the government has employed to justify its action or non-action, then "negative impact on tourism" should top the list.
Over the past week the government again bombarded the public with its "impact-on-tourism" chant, as it tried to justify the decision to keep silent (for almost a month!) about a possible terrorist attack in Thailand, an alert which the United States and Israel finally issued.
"At that time [last December], Thailand, the US and Israel agreed to keep the matter secret because Thailand did not want it to become news, for fear that media reports could trigger a wave of panic that would affect the country's tourism," the just-replaced defence minister, Yutthasak Sasiprapa, said earlier this week.
Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said he was disappointed by the foreign embassies' move to issue a travel warning for Thailand because such warnings were damaging to the country's tourism.
I'm not going to discuss whether the terrorism threat is for real, or if this is just a conspiracy by some governments trying to expand their anti-terrorism operations to Thailand. I'm not going to debate whether confiscation on Jan 16 of a huge cache of bomb-making materials in Samut Sakhon was a set-up plot, either.
Regardless of whether this much-feared terrorism attack plot does or does not exist, the government should be handling matters in a more professional manner.
Instead of keeping tight-lipped for fear that tourists won't come to Thailand, the government should communicate with the people in a way that makes them cautious, not panicky.
Thais and tourists should be informed about the situation: what the government is doing, how serious is the threat and what is being done to ensure public safety.
This does not mean that the government or the security agencies have to reveal everything to the public and tourists.
It is the government's job to select messages that should be sent out in the interests of public safety, while withholding certain information so as to facilitate security operations and the investigation process.
Although the Thai authorities have repeatedly talked about security measures to ensure public safety over the past several days, this happened only after the US had alerted American citizens in Thailand that "foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future".
In fact, the Yingluck Shinawatra government's handling of the terrorism warning is not unprecedented. Past governments also resorted to the cover-up policy in dealing with emergency issues.
Delays in the confirmation of disease outbreaks, such as bird flu in 2004 and H1N1 influenza in 2009 and other natural disasters were also partly due to the authorities' fears that such warnings would negatively affect tourism.
We don't know how many more incidents will be concealed by the government in order to protect the tourism industry and maybe even to save its own face for failing to ward off such mishaps.
We we can only pray that this "keep quiet" tactic won't lead to a major catastrophe or tragedy that could have been prevented had the public been alerted beforehand.
Since the tourism industry is Thailand's major source of revenue and involves a vast number of workers, it is understandable why the bureaucrats and politicians are so paranoid about any incident that may scare away tourists.
The tourism industry and those who are working in the hospitality business deserve utmost protection, but the government must not sacrifice public safety for the sake of more tourism revenues and higher numbers of tourist arrivals.
They should bear in mind that if really bad things happen _ be it a terrorist attack, an outbreak of infectious disease or a natural disaster _ the loss to life and property could be far greater than the cost of damage to tourism.
The more the government covers up information that affects public safety, the less credibility it will have in the eyes of tourists and the international community.
Maybe the biggest threat to Thailand's tourism at the moment is not terrorism but the government's attempts to protect the industry by keeping tourists uninformed and the Thai authorities' failure to communicate with the public about emergency issues.
Kultida Samabuddhi is Deputy News Editor, Bangkok Post.