Imtiaz Muqbil, a leading journalist-historian in the Asia-Pacific region, will conduct a special lecture in English via Zoom titled "From Condoms To Face Masks: How Thailand Beat The Aids Pandemic" to revisit one of the worst crises to have ever hit Thai tourism, on Friday from 11am to noon.
Designed for senior management executives, scholars of tourism history, policymakers and strategic planners at all levels, the lecture will present his frank and independent perspectives on why the Thai travel and tourism industry will need to apply the lessons learned from handling the Aids crisis of the 1990s in order to overcome the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic and build a better future for Thailand's largest service sector.
According to Muqbil, Thai tourism has faced multiple local, regional and global crises ranging from the 1997 economic collapse to the 2004 tsunami. However, it has bounced back after each crisis because it is very good at short-term recovery campaigns.
However, the Covid-19 crisis is by far the worst in terms of duration and impact. The emerging New World Order will be a totally different operating environment.
He believes that Thai tourism can lead the global recovery with an innovative and creative new roadmap but only if it seriously and comprehensively learns the lessons of the Aids pandemic, which he said brought out the best and the worst in Thai society.
"Thailand's experience in curbing the Aids pandemic is a story of courage and co-operation, controversies and conflicts. Today, sweeping such pandemics under the carpet is impossible but many other underlying related problems are still being swept under the carpet," he says.
Muqbil is currently the executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, a tourism website devoted to providing alternative perspectives on industry trends.
photo courtesy of travel-impact-newswire.com
The registration fee is 900 baht per person. Visit https://www.travel-impact-newswire.com/2021/02/from-condoms-to-face-masks-how-thailand-beat-the-aids-pandemic.
