thaizer.com

Officials in Thailand have announced that there will be a crackdown on the illegal taxi and tour touts operating at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport. The crackdown is said to be in response to the increasing number of complaints from foreign tourists who get hassled on arrival at Bangkok airport.

There have been numerous attempts before to stamp out the touts who work illegally at the airport. Previously at Don Muang and again at the new airport at Suvarnabhumi, police have launched campaigns which have resulted in arrests and fines being handed out. However, within a few weeks the problem resurfaces. The reason for that must largely be down to not going after the real people behind what is clearly a lucrative trade. There have been accusations that some officials are gaining financially by turning a blind eye to certain activities at the airport. If this new attempt to clean up the airport targets the real corruption, then that’s great. However, old hands in Thailand have seen it all before and are sceptical this time.

In the past, there has been a lot of complacency in Thailand about the tourist industry. There has always been a belief that visitors will come to Thailand and then keep coming back. Whilst that may have been true to some extent in the past, many things have changed recently. A global economic crisis, Thailand’s political turmoil and swine flu are just three factors which have resulted in a significant drop in tourist numbers to Thailand. The country can no longer rest on its laurels and just assume that tourists will keep coming. For many first time visitors arriving in Thailand, their initial impression of the country is formed at the airport. If that experience is one of being pestered by touts in suits who carry clipboards and continually ask, ‘Where you go?’ then the impression isn’t always favourable. If these new measures are part of a serious attempt to tackle various forms of corruption at the airport then that can only be a good thing for the image of Thailand. I certainly hope the crackdown does work, but I’m not holding my breath.

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