A case for Thai tourism revival

It's often easy to make comparisons when you return from a trip abroad. You notice seamless connectivity, organised chaos and order in cities like Tokyo. It's invisible perk? Clean air and cool weather.

- NIKI CHATIKAVANIJ

The city benefits from long-running diesel restrictions, and rules-based public health and safety that automatically becomes a tourist perk. It's a natural blend of heritage and technology, with each neighbourhood telling its own story, from Omotesando to Ginza to Shibuya and Daikanyama. People keep returning and integrate into routes and routines paved by locals.

This is the best way to travel and to experience cities. To follow the “Good Life” pathways drawn by those who wake up and live in such areas, tourist-friendly spots that were not crafted to be as such.

A first-world city like Tokyo allows tourists to move through its streets as seamlessly as locals do. It’s attracting so much demand that the government is taking real steps to counter over-tourism, a result of the weakened yen and the country’s charms in culture, food and scenery. Meanwhile, a country as beloved and renowned for tourism as Thailand is currently experiencing a crisis of confidence.

Tourism, a well-documented contributor to our country’s GDP, is contracting. This, when combined with Thailand’s lagging economy and limited growth which is expected to hover at no more than 2.4% for 2025, means we cannot afford to remain on autopilot.