Backpackers pay their way
Re: "Tourist figures dubious" (Postbag, Sept 23).
RH Suga writes very interesting letters that I enjoy reading and mostly agree with. However, I would like to question what a quality tourist really is.
Is a quality tourist one who comes loaded with money, spends nights in five-star hotels, stays an average of two weeks in the kingdom and travels to tourist spots in air-conditioned tour buses while hardly stepping outside? Or is a quality tourist a backpacker who spends a month or many months here, staying in smaller establishments that would never get high-end tourist income, trekking into the less accessible parts of Thailand, spending time with locals, villagers, spending money among them, and, better yet, braving travel on the train instead of flying to destinations?
A member of the Thai Hoteliers Association endorsed those backpackers and others like them as being a valuable and vital link in the tourist industry who should be encouraged, not frowned on.
The same association mentioned an interesting fact. Income earned here by foreign hotel chains does not remain in Thailand but is remitted to headquarters, mostly outside Thailand.
I guess we need both the high-end and low-end tourists without discrimination. In for a dime, in for a dollar, as we say.