An Exceptional Recovery: Post-Tsunami Tourism in Thailand - Essay Example

?An Exceptional Recovery: Post-Tsunami Tourism in Thailand Introduction In the last decade, the tourism industry in Thailand has been growing and theUNWTO has observed that tourism will continue increasing in developing countries in future. Statistics show that Thailand is one amongst world’s 50 developing countries with tourism as the primary industry sourcing foreign exchange (Lacher and Nepal, 2010). Regarding tourist arrivals, Thailand is estimated to have 6.9 percent growth in tourist arrivals by the year 2020, having 37 million people visiting the country (Sriboonjit et al, 2010). It should be mentioned that this would be almost 10 percent of the entire Asia pacific tourism market. A major contributor to Thailand in terms of tourists is Malaysia which amounted up to approximately 12 percent in the year 2005 (Sriboonjit et al 2010). In 2004, a major break- in for the tourism industry of Thailand happened due to the Indian Ocean Tsunami which brought massive destruction at Thailand’s coast. This was caused by an earthquake in the region which recorded 9.0 in the Richter Scale. It is supposed to be the fourth largest earthquake in the history of the world. It has been documented that waves even up to a height of 13 meters were formed at the coasts of Phang Nga (Lukkunaprasit and Ruangrassamee, 2008). More than 5300 people died and reports confirmed more than 250000 fatalities. This is considered to be the worst of all tsunamis regarding the destruction it caused. The natural disaster largely affected the tourism industry of the country. The damage was not only limited to the infrastructural loss, it had effects on the tourism arrivals and the safety concerns of the tourists. Additionally, the vulnerability of tourism as an economic and social system has been largely highlighted by the impacts of the disaster (Calgaro and Lloyd, 2008). The coastal communities which were dependent on tourism were largely affected. However, the connection between environmental changes and tourism with reference to its impacts on the community and on Thailand as a nation must be analyzed to understand this issue in depth. According to Cohen (2008), Thailand’s successful post-tsunami recovery is due to a group of factors, not only to the driving forces of the tourism industry. Yet, there are astonishingly very few studies on the effects of natural disasters on the tourism industry in spite of the reality that a large number of the world’s most prominent and thriving tourism areas are exposed to disastrous natural occurrences or societal problems. Thus, the objective of this essay is to critically analyze the impact of the tsunami on the tourism industry of Thailand. The essay identifies the connection between tourism and natural disasters and relates it to Thailand’s context. This is important as this connection would lead to insights about appropriate marketing strategies to minimize the negative impacts of natural disasters on the tourism industry. Tourism developments in Thailand after the tsunami are also being discussed in detail. Furthermore, the essay evaluates the current tourism scenario in the country in the post-tsunami context and recommends suitable strategies to effectively restore Thailand’s popularity as a tourism destination. Natural Disasters and their Impacts on Tourism The Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 demonstrates the hazards of natural catastrophes to the tourism industry and tourism areas. As stated by Murphy and Bayley (1989, as cited in Gossling and Hall, 2006, 286): “Tourism can be significantly exposed to natural disasters, because of its attachment to high-risk areas with exotic scenery. The lure of snow-capped peaks brings the hazard of avalanches. Tropical beaches attract tourists to the potential paths of hurricanes...” Gossling and Hall (2006) explained that the above passage simply illustrates the truth that natural disasters are no restriction to the operations of the tourism industry. In contrast, the threats of natural catastrophes are normally heightened in very popular tourism destinations. It has been observed that the appearance of other economic, natural disasters, and epidemics had a similar trend in terms of tourist arrival as it was in the case of the tsunami. In the case of other events, to which tourism industry is vulnerable to, an immediate drop in the tourist arrival appeared. However, in all these cases, in the years which followed, the industry picked up and had a tourist arrival higher than any past records (Laws, Prideaux, & Chon, 2007). In the case of SARS, Recession, Riots and Political Instability, the same trend has been repeated (TAT, 2011). The graph below compares the tourist arrivals in millions in the last 14 years. *graph taken from TAT, 2011 The above graph illustrates that political, climatic, and health related events could affect tourism in Thailand. The general trend in the graph shows that the year after the disaster tourism dipped to a small extent. However, the very next year the trend was reversed with an increase in the graph which brought the data to an all time record. For instance, in the case of SARS, which took place in 2002, the tourist arrival decreased to 10 million from 10.8 million in the very next year (TAT ,2011). However, in 2004, the number of tourists who came to Thailand was 11.65 million, which was the highest in the history. Similar trend was observed in the case of the economic recession and riots which happened in 2008 (TAT ,2011). These data suggest that the negative impact of disasters on the tourist arrival does not survive longer as a year. It might be also the case that people travel to places where disasters occurred so that they could experience and feel the outcomes of the disaster closely. Therefore, natural tragedies can be exploited for prominent tourism goals after the incident. The most well-known examples are Herculaneum and Pompeii, which were obliterated by a major volcanic eruption (Gossling & Hall, 2006) In other terms, disasters create touristic interest. Therefore, the concept of disaster tourism is gaining increased attention and interest from tourists. Disaster Tourism A disaster tourist has been defined by Hoving et al. (2010) as follows: “A disaster tourist is a person heading to the site of a disaster to see the destruction, take pictures, obtain bragging rights, and get the shoulder badge. Man has forever been a curious being, and with television desensitizing us to tragedy, people want a true taste of authenticity. Everyone wants to experience everything firsthand” (p.202). The objective of disaster tourism is to travel to places, which were devastated by natural tragedies, such as hurricane or tsunami, or human-made catastrophes, such as terrorism, oil spills, major fires, etc. However, mass media reports about most recent disasters, but those who would like to experience all the misery and distress of the affected populations and assess the magnitude of the disaster, visit these locales (Echtner & Prasad, 2003). Thus the tourism industry takes advantage of this tourists’ craving to see ravaged areas, and arrange travel packages to the most well-known destinations, where tragedies happened. The history of disasters across the world suggests that there were always people travelling to disaster destinations. Similar trends were observed after the Iran earthquake in 2003, tsunami in 2004 and Haiti earthquake in 2010 (Hoving et al, 2010). Disaster tourists can be separated in two categories. The first category includes the group of tourists who set off to places of disasters on humanitarian grounds, to help the rehabilitation processes. These groups of people are generally mobilized by Non Governmental Organizations and other Social Work Groups (Gossling & Hall, 2006). This class of tourists appears with good intention of helping out in a situation of destruction. However, there is literature available which suggest that the help of untrained and unprofessional rehabilitation volunteers brought out negative consequences. Hoving et al (2010) has cited that the disaster tourists are in many times not feasible and sensible in case of helping after disasters. Their inexperience, unawareness of local culture and lack of integration with local systems and local population creates problems in the relief process. As a result, their presence causes negative impacts on the rehabilitation processes. Moreover, they may inappropriately need the resources like water, food and medicine, which are already limited. According to Hoving et al. (2010), they may also create problems since they may use inappropriate methods and violate the locally relevant cultural and social rules. The second group of disaster tourists is the one who visit places of disaster out of curiosity. This kind of tourism is often related to dark tourism. People who are getting fascinated by the sufferings of others has been considered as a key aspect of dark tourism (Korstanje, 2011). According to Korstanje (2011, 424), it has been documented that mass deaths have created a form of cultural entrainment amongst the people of the West. There has been a high demand for disaster tourism in post-tsunami Thailand (Hoving et al., 2010). The statistics (p. 4 & 10) provided on tourist arrivals in Thailand after the tsunami could illustrate it. Impact of the Tsunami in Thailand The tsunami which brought havoc in southwest Thailand affected many communities including Krabi, Satun, Ranong, and Phuket, the tourism centre of southern Thailand (Paton et al., 2007). Nevertheless, according to Lace (2008), in Thailand, where the tsunami was an unprecedented natural tragedy in the history of the nation, the recuperation has been astonishing. In regions of tourism, which provide sizeable profits not just for the indigenous areas but for the national economy as well, the most urgent demand was to restore the tourism sector immediately (Lace, 2008). The post-tsunami recovery of the tourism industry in Thailand, as discussed later on, was rapid, even with the magnitude of the tragedy. According to Berger (2007), their global status and the profits produced from tourist arrivals somewhat contributed to the fast recovery of the coastal villages in Thailand.  In the meantime, studies on the effects of natural tragedies usually concentrate on ‘direct damage’, or destruction immediately brought about by the impact of the damaging occurrence. ?Indirect damage` in comparison to ?direct demage? includes not the actual damage at a certain place, it also includes the consequences in other businesses and worldwide impacts (Gossling & Hall, 2006). The tsunami disaster in Thailand brought both direct and indirect effects as well as touristic value. Apart from the loss of life which the tsunami caused, thousands people lost their jobs. The tsunami destroyed numerous small market resorts and lodges in the regions directly located near the Andaman Sea and resulted in huge damages for top hotels in those regions, but profited hotels in other tourism destinations in Thailand (EQUATIONS, 2006). Khao Lak in the province of Phangnga was the most damaged area where only 1,067 rooms in ten resorts, of the 6,369 rooms in roughly a hundred resorts prior to the tsunami, survived. Since each room would have produced large numbers of indirect and direct employment, these numbers reveal the effect that the tsunami had on job opportunities (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009, 99). A large number of hotels in the damaged regions had achieved 15% occupancy rates in 2005. Nevertheless, at the start of 2008 the total rate of occupancy returned to roughly 70 percent, a little lower than Thailand’s domestic standard of 73 percent. How severely the tsunami affected hotels in southern Thailand can be known from yearly accounts. The landholder of Phuket resorts, Laguna Resorts & Hotels PCL, sustained baht 149 million net loss (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009, 99). Hotels far away from the Andaman Sea profited from the movement of tourists away from the affected regions. For instance, Shangri-La in Bangkok gained an increase in overall profits by roughly baht 60 million during that time (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009, 99). Demand started to lag behind supply. Even though the tourism industry in southern coastal regions has been interrupted by the tsunami, there is no serious lasting effect. The government assesses that recovery costs in these areas has totalled to only 0.2 percent of GDP, or baht 10 billion (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009, 99). As a consequence of the tsunami, hotel owners started to value a strongly stabilised portfolio; Pattaya and Koh Chang are predicted to flourish in the near future, particularly with the construction of Suvarnabhumi Airport, which has an express freeway link to the beaches. Airlines in Thailand, such as the Thai Airways, have raised flight regularity with express travels from Russia’s St. Petersburg and have enlarged services to include the entire year rather than only the peak season of November to March (Conrad, 2006). In several premium beachfront projects, almost 40 percent of freshly constructed lodges have been occupied by people from Russia. Menus in eating places are available in three languages, namely, Thai, English, and Russian (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009). According to Warr (2005), in spite of the large-scale devastation, within several weeks numerous of the damaged resort locales had restored operations, and tourism began a global campaign to pull back foreign tourists to southern Thailand. The reason of the tourism industry’s decline was not only the concrete physical devastation to tourism establishments but fear of tourists to see the locales ravaged by the tsunami. Phuket had the sharpest decline in spite of the fact that its lodges were less destroyed than hotels in Phang Nga and Krabi (Brown & Minty, 2008). The tourism industry in Phuket declined in January and remained weak in 2005 (Jayasuriya & McCawley, 2010, 186). The decline in tourism resulted unemployment in those regions. Figure 1. Tourism revenue in three provinces (million US$) Source: Jayasuriya and McCawley, 2010, p. 186 Generally, a decline was expected in the tourist inflow to Thailand after the Tsunami. The table below shows data on tourist arrivals in Thailand from 2002 to 2007. Year Number of Tourists 2002 10872976 2003 10082109 2004 11737413 2005 11567341 2006 13821802 2007 14464228 Source: TAT, 2011 This table shows an increase in tourist arrival to Thailand, from the year 2004 onwards, apart from the year 2005, with the reduction of 1.45 percent (TAT, 2011). The increases in cash liquidity globally, along with rising interest in travel globally are the reasons of the increase of inbound travel in Thailand. The reduction in the year 2005 must be linked to the occurrence of tsunami in the year 2004 (TAT ,2011). Compared to 2003, there was an increase of 16.42 percent in tourist arrival in the year 2004. Regarding this point, it must be assumed that tourism was not affected in 2004, as Tsunami occurred late in this year (Jayasuriya & McCawley, 2010). However, comparing the percentage of increase in the amount of tourists in other years close to 2004, a decrease of 1.45 percent is not a major decline (TAT, 2011). Furthermore, in-depth analysis of countrywide trends in travel after the disaster in Thailand reveals interesting information. In the year 2005, major decline in tourist’s arrivals to Thailand was observed from East Asia and Africa. Though there was more than 6 percent decline in tourists from Africa, their number is negligible as only few thousands of African tourists visit Thailand (Nelson, 2007). However, there had been a substantial reduction of 3.57 percent in the East Asian Scenario (TAT, 2011). There was substantially decrease of tourists in the case of Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition, an increase of more than 80 percent of people from Lao were travelling to Thailand in the year 2005 (TAT ,2011). However, people from Laos in Thailand cannot be counted as tourists. Labor intake from Thailand is a major contribution to this statistics. Huge loss in infrastructure leading to large demand for human resource to undertake rehabilitation measures created opportunity for people to migrate from Laos (Lukkunaprasit & Ruangrassamee, 2008). The additional amount of migrants into the statistics of tourism helps while it increases the statistics. The stabilization in tourist arrival, as shown in the statistics, gives a positive inclination in the tourists’ perception about the destination. Fortunately the declines in tourism in the damaged areas were counteracted by boosts in the number of tourists in other areas of Thailand since only a small percentage of the country’s hotel businesses were seriously damaged by the tsunami. There are other resorts in various areas of the country which are practical replacements for the destroyed resorts of the Andaman regions (Hollingsworth, 2007). Furthermore, it was possible for tourists to move their vacations to northern Thailand. The outcome was that even though there was a substantial drop in the rate of hotel occupancy in southern Thailand, there were boosts in rates of occupancy in other areas of the country, especially Bangkok. The rate of hotel occupancy in Pattaya increased to 28% in 2005 (Jayasuriya & McCawley, 2010, 187). The outcome was a boost in the popularity of lands in these substitute tourism areas. The price of land in Koh Samui, by 2006, had increased tremendously (Hollingsworth, 2007, 142). Figure 2. Hotel occupancy rate in 2005 and 2005 (per cent) Source: Hollingsworth, 2007, 142 & Jayasuriya & McCawley, 2010, 187 In 2006, statistics of tourist arrivals in the ravaged regions started to pick up. The post-tsunami tourism industry was restoring its previous height of operation. Airlines that suspended travels to Phuket after the tsunami had recommenced operations, such as airlines from Europe, Singapore, Korea, and Australia (Lace, 2008). Moreover, other airlines launched express travels to Andaman regions. Hong Kong Express, in the latter part of 2006, began to launch regular flights from Hong Kong to Phuket (Berger, 2007). The return of numerous airlines and the entry of new ones demonstrated a revival of the tourism industry. According to the marketing perspective, it is notable that the tourism industry of Thailand stabilized itself within a year after a massive disaster (TAT, 2011). Statistics show that the amount of tourist arrival increased to a level which was higher than the numbers in the years before the tsunami disaster. An objective analysis of the scenario gives therefore the impression that the tourism industry has grown from the year after tsunami. However, this analysis does not take into consideration the damage of small scale ventures which were initiated by the local community members (TAT, 2011). Additionally, the job losses in the areas where the tsunami made massive destruction have not been reflected as well. Thus the impact of the tsunami cannot only be limited to the economic aspect of it. It has to include the socio-environmental aspects and local communities, including the restoration of loss that has happened in the biodiversity of the region (Hollingsworth, 2007). In addition, according to Andrews and Siengthai (2009), the restoration of the aesthetic value of regions has to be considered while discussing the impact of the tsunami on Thailand’s tourism. Marketing Strategy for Thailand According to Mr. Pracha, Thailand’s minister of Tourism Authority, “Restoring the tourism in Phuket and South Thailand, and making any promotional program to promote the rate of traveling populations in Thailand are the most important assignments at the moment” (Conrad, 2006, 6). The Thai government, with the full intention of realizing this objective, implemented three measures to attract travelers back to the beautiful places of Thailand. First, because terrorism activities in southern Thailand did not cease, the Thai government increased its security to attract tourists (Conrad, 2006). The Thai government ensures that visiting Thailand is completely secure destination to travel to. In addition, the Thai government arranged travel packages with affordable rates to encourage tourists to have a second look at southern Thailand. The Thai government teamed up with travel and accommodation agencies, and Thailand Airline Company to support the affordable rates and boost tourist arrivals in southern Thailand. Third, the Thai government restores the resorts which were devastated to bring back the beautiful landscape (Berger, 2007). As discussed by Andrews and Siengthai (2009), the Thai government employed a variety of promotion strategies to rebuild the tourism industry, and it attained its ultimate objective and improved the country’s gains, and the gains of indigenous populations. The historical reaction of the Thai government to economic recuperation can be demonstrated through its endorsement of ‘Amazing Thailand’ in 1998 which was implemented soon after the economic collapse in 1997 in attempt to improve foreign capital or investment (Nelson, 2007). As stated by Nick Kontogeorgopoulos (2005), the premise of other tourism alternatives, such as ecotourism, endorsed in the past by the government was contrary to its persuasion of Thai tourism developers to strive for improvements in tourist arrivals instead of to aim for regulated development. This inconsistency is shown by the marketing drive for ‘Amazing Thailand’, which worked towards increased tourist arrivals in 1997 to 1998 (Nelson, 2007, 37). However, the major goals of Thailand’s marketing plan after the tsunami involve concentrating on some of already before targeted countries and emerging economies of New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and China; endorsing new services and/or products such as spa holidays; upgrading Krabi and Phuket airports; constructing new harbours; and attracting wealthy tourists (Lace, 2008). Regarding the Anshoff Matrix, the strategy` penetrating markets? while endorsing `new products or services?, which would be the stage `Product Expansion?, is of medium risk but in case of Thailand, a potential strategy. Since the tsunami disaster took place, the strategy of only `penetrating markets? without implementing new products or services would not be of high success as well as the stage of `Diversification?, which brings along the highest risk. An illustration of these strategies is provided by the Ansoff Matrix table below. Source: Business Development Figure 3. Ansoff Matrix table Furthermore, the Thai government conducted several prestigious events to draw the world’s interest, such as the Miss Universe in Bangkok (Conrad, 2006). As stated by Lace (2008), the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) attempts to build new tourism destinations. In planning for tourism disaster, another important element recognised by most of the marketing frameworks is collaboration with other stakeholders, groups, and resource management. The process of recovery in Phuket shows that even in the absence of a tsunami-based disaster management plan, a positive collaboration before an event can foster better resource allocation, cooperation, and involvement (Laws et al., 2007). As a result of current threats like bird flu, SARS, and terrorism, the Thai Hotel Association (THA), the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), the Tourism Association of Thailand, and several airlines had already developed a practically promotion and joint marketing before the tsunami tragedy (Laws et al., 2007). Likewise, according to Calgaro and Lloyd (2008), all government agencies had contributed substantially to this tourism drive in reinforcing and executing the security, defence, and health programmes. The community members had built up small scale tourism ventures and lost their business as a result of the tsunami. Therefore, it must be ensured as well that the local community has an opportunity to participate in tourism activities. Since the community did not have a support system to rebuild their small businesses after the tsunami, many of these were owned by big players, which then led to the reduction of local players (Calgaro and Lloyd, 2008). This issue must be solved by the marketing strategy of the country’s tourism industry. In addition, tourism practices, like rural tourism and community-owned tourism, are gaining attention across the globe (Kontogeorgopoulos, 2005). A marketing strategy which highlights effectively community-owned projects will bring benefit to the industry in various levels. Several products must be developed which are community-oriented. The success does not only necessarily have to be a marketing tool for the tourism industry; it can also be used as an instrument for community development additionally. Thus, basically, based on the above discussion, the threat of natural disasters is reasonably a primary concern in destination preference. Thus the appeal and reputation of post-tsunami Thailand is shaped by numerous factors. A broad array of perceptions influences the attractiveness of a destination to the prospective tourist (Beirman, 2003). The diagram below shows the following factors that will likely influence the marketing strategies of post-tsunami tourism in Thailand: Figure 4. Forces which influence destination image formation by Seyhmus Baloglu and Ken McCleary *diagram taken from Beirman, 2003, 5 These factors create challenges to Thailand’s tourism industry and tourism officials to put into effect suitable marketing strategies to revive the image of the country’s tourism destinations. These factors suggest how the tourism industry should carry out a marketing drive to bring back its local and global image and regain its market from the unfavourable effects of the tsunami. Hence ‘restoration marketing’ is a vital component in the total revitalisation of Thailand’s tourism industry. Lastly, the marketing strategy of Thailand’s post-tsunami tourism industry should sustain equilibrium between ‘push marketing’—attracting individuals who promote tourism in a way that will persuade them to promote a particular destination—and ‘pull marketing’—directly attracting potential tourists (Cheverton, 2004). Tourism practitioners, like most people, are influenced in their views of places by widespread publicity and this can lead to travel agents informing their customers on the good qualities of a destination on the basis of their publicity-influenced ideas (Laws et al., 2007). Hence, tourism officials in Thailand should prioritise assisting or training industry practitioners to be more knowledgeable of the condition in the country than their clients. Although useful, efficient, and informative websites, forums, and industry news are all important tools for updating information about the condition in post-tsunami Thailand, there is nothing more influential and persuasive than one’s own experience. Tourism officials in Thailand should try to recognise affiliates of tourism in their source markets who are highly esteemed by their co-workers and encourage them to see and check the country’s tourism destinations. According to Beirman (2003), an individual endorsement or testimony carries a lot more weight than the representative of a tourism official. The rapid recovery of Thailand’s tourism industry is also brought about by TAT’s efforts to host big groups of tourism practitioners from leading source markets to see for themselves the damages of the tsunami and the fact that majority of Thailand’s tourism destinations were undamaged. The Thai government implemented a related strategy with the mass media, and the statement that Thailand was safe for travel and tourism was immediately and swiftly circulated in the push and pull aspects of the tourism industry (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009). Travel agents and consultants who are well-informed and certain about a tourist attraction are able to promote the place and dispel consumer doubts. Conclusions Generally, natural disasters have a negative impact, since in most cases it is related to life loss which is out of the human perspective, the most relevant impact. However, from the economical point of view it can cause negative and positive impacts. As discussed before, one of the negative impacts is the increase in unemployment and damages of businesses. These impacts could be categorized as a short term impact, whereas the popularity of a country due to a disaster could be categorized as long term impacts. As mentioned before, due to a natural disaster, Pompeii became a popular tourist destination. Regarding the tsunami in Thailand, an analysis of the data on tourist arrival illustrated an increase in the number of tourists visiting Thailand in the years after Tsunami. This increase could be attributed to disaster tourism in which tourists travel to destinations where disasters appeared. Furthermore, it could be also caused by the price decrease of airlines. However, according to the tourist arrival data, it can be concluded that the tourism industry in Thailand has been growing even with its vulnerability to environmental, political, and natural disasters. Therefore, Thailand should be marketed as a safe destination with well-developed disaster management strategies. Campaigns which are concentrating on safety have to be initiated in target countries which are the regular sources of tourists in Thailand. Overall, Thailand’s remarkable recovery from a very tragic event can be attributed to many factors. The first factor could be that even though statistics show that there were massive destructions in south Thailand these damages were concentrated in a few areas, such as Phuket and Krabi. There were other areas in Thailand that were developed as tourism destinations, like Bangkok, after the tsunami. Second, airlines that previously operated in Thailand restored their operations. A third factor could be the emergence of disaster tourism, also called ‘dark tourism’, contributed to the rebound of Thailand’s tourism industry. Furthermore, the Thai government strengthened its security mechanisms to regain the confidence of foreign tourists. 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