Publication Code: N63
by Mingsarn Kaosa-ard, David Bezic, and Suzanne White
The Kingdom of Thailand possesses a physical and ethnic richness that has led to its establishment among the world's major tourist destinations. In 1996, an estimated 7.44 million international tourists visited Thailand and their collective expenditures of 201,389 million baht proved to be the country's primary source of foreign exchange that year (TDRI, 1997). The year earlier, Thailand ranked tenth world-wide in tourism receipts and was the 19th most visited global destination in terms of foreign tourist arrivals.
Supplementing this substantial degree of international visitation is an increase in the number of trips made by Thai tourists within their own country. The rapid growth experienced by the Thai economy over the past decade has been accompanied by an expansion of the country's middle-class and a rise in domestic tourism. More and more Thais are finding the time and financial resources to travel and are expected to soon account for a greater share of tourism-related expenditures within the Kingdom than their foreign counterparts. The number of in-country trips made by Thai tourists in 1996 totalled approximately 42.5 million and projections suggest that this figure will more than double to 97 million by the year 2003 (TDRI, 1997).
In addition to the foreign exchange it supplies other less recognised, indirect economic contributions of the tourism sector include its role as an income re-distributor and the tourism-related production it induces. It has also led to an increased international awareness of opportunities in Thailand and, in the process, possibly contributed to the foreign investment flows that made the nation's economic growth feasible. While the benefits are obvious and relatively transparent, the costs of tourism - stemming largely from mismanagement - are less apparent. The ramifications of improper tourism management are far reaching and failure to recognise this is akin to inviting unsustainable development of the sector.