Thailand isn’t as cheap as it used to be, thanks to the strong baht
hard to find Talad Rot Fai, a night market in Bangkok. On leaving the nearby subway station, just follow the column of Chinese tourists. They eagerly try on heart-shaped sunglasses, avocado-patterned socks and other fripperies. Yet the people manning the stalls are glum. Ton, who runs a store selling mobile-phone accessories, flicks through a ledger. On his best days last year, he says, sales came to perhaps 15,000 baht . Now they have slumped to around 6,000 baht.
“I think we are still holding our own,” maintains Yuthasak Supasorn, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. But the strong baht means Thailand isn’t as cheap as it used to be. Overall tourist numbers are slightly higher so far this year than last, but the growth is unusually meagre. Another factor in the slowing growth of tourism is overburdened infrastructure. Packed airports with long queues induce a sense of anything but relaxation among visitors. Even beaches are too crowded. Last year the government closed Maya Bay, the cliff-encircled Eden made famous in the film “The Beach”, to allow its ecosystem to recover from the tourist onslaught of past years. The spot is not expected to reopen until 2021.
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