Life in Thailand

In a more or less predictable quarterly cycle, there was yet another letter in the Bangkok Post from some visitor whining about dual pricing. I frankly have never quite understood these people, who generally have paid thousands of dollars to get here, yet only grudgingly part with an extra 50 cents to get into a national monument.

For the uninitiated, ‘dual pricing’ is the practice of charging foreigners (especially westerners) a different, usually higher, price than that charged to locals. It does happen in Thailand, there’s no doubt about that, and before I go too far into this, let me just say that, on the whole, I do think Thailand would be better off if this practice didn’t happen.

The thing I’ve never understood is why people seem to get so upset about this — and I mean really upset. I’ve heard some real tirades from people who seemed to find it totally reprehensible that they should have to pay 75 cents to get into a place in Ayutthaya when Thais only have to pay 25 cents. They take it as a huge insult.

This particular practice at national monuments is government policy. Justifications for it include the fact that Thais pay taxes to support these places, while tourists don’t, and the belief that historic places are part of Thais’ national heritage, and access to them needs to be as free as possible. My own reaction to the whiners is basically, “It’s 50 cents, for crying out loud!!!”

The other place where people run into dual pricing is Bangkok’s Grand Palace, where Thais get in free while foriegners have to pay about US$6 to get in. Again, this really riles a lot of people. What the complainers don’t seem to get is that the Grand Palace is a religeous place for Thais, where they go to pray in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It’s also the most important cultural place in Bangkok. Frankly, many of these morons should be grateful the Thais let them in — I see some shocking behaviour and pure ignorance on almost every visit to the temple.

One of the arguments against dual pricing is that it’s racist. Well, I guess everyone wants to play the race card these days. I can’t easily argue it isn’t, but just because Thais are one color of skin and most tourists are another doesn’t necessarily make something racist, or wrong.

Lastly, the whiners like to point out that “this kind of thing doesn’t happen where they come from.” Oh really? If they’re from the US, I suggest they visit Hawaii some time and ask locals what they pay at restaurants and other places that usually cater to tourists. Europeans aren’t safe either. Venetians don’t pay the same rates for water taxis that tourists do. The practice is actually quite common in heavily touristed areas all over the world, so deal with it!

If you’ve visited any central Bangkok shopping mall in the last year, chances are you’ve noticed some renovation work under way. It seems that just about every mall has been getting some work done, and in some cases it’s been an “extreme makeover”.

All this work has, for the most part, been done in anticipation of the opening of Bangkok’s newest (and probably last) shopping center in the middle of the main shopping district. The new 500 pound gorilla on the block, in case you haven’t heard, is Siam Paragon, which officially opened on 9 December. Siam Paragon is basically a bigger badder version of the very successful Emporium shopping center, out on Sukhumvit Road. That it should resemble Emporium makes sense, since it’s bought to you by the same people who developed the Emporium, Thailand’s The Mall company.

Siam Paragon seeks to capture the high ground, or perhaps I should say hi-so ground, in Bangkok’s shopping scene. All the big fashion names are here - Hermes, Armani, Versace, and on and on. It’s not just clothing and perfumes here, though. The corridors also have Bentleys, Ferraris and even a couple of Hummers on display. All this is part of the developer’s tried and true strategy. What made Emporium so successful, where Gaysorn largely failed (twice) is in the recognition that, while there are a fair number of the super-rich in Bangkok, or visiting it, there are a much greater number of the not-so-super-rich and the super-rich wannabes that you can draw in, if you put on a good show and also give them more accessible distractions, like movies, food and consumer electronics. Siam Paragon has the added attraction of a huge aquarium, Siam Ocean World, which is reputed to be Southeast Asia’s largest.

In its first month since opening, the shopping center has attracted huge crowds, especially on weekends. This, despite the fact that many shops (perhaps as much as half) still aren’t open. But this is the prime shopping season, as well as the tourist high season as well. The key test of just how successful Siam Paragon will be will come in March or April. By that time, the rest of the shops should be open, so the novelty will have worn off, and most of the tourists will have gone home. It’s then that we’ll see whether Siam Paragon is a big success or a big bust.

Today’s issue of The Nation newspaper carries a story about the launch of a ‘Tourist TV’ channel to promote destinations around Thailand to visiting tourists. As noted in the article, the ‘channel’ is actually up to 10 hours a day of programming to be provided to existing broadcast and cable channels in Thailand.

Now, there are certainly a lot of interesting places in Thailand, that many foreign tourists probably don’t know about, but does promoting these destinations to people who are already here really make sense? Most people plan their trips well in advance, and aren’t likely to want to make major changes in the itenerary at the last minute, especially with some of the penalties charged by airlines these days for changes.

Of course, there is a class of tourist that does usually have a flexible schedule - the backpacker pack. But most of these folk won’t even spring for a room with a shower (or is it that they just don’t use it?) so I’d be surprised if they even had access to a television, and even more surprised that, if they did have a TV, it wouldn’t be tuned to some sports channel.

The program sounds more like a government ‘feel good’ campaign rather than something that will produce real results, but who in this world really expects their government to produce real results?

Full text of The Nation article:

‘Tourist TV’ launched
Published on December 28, 2005

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will launch the country’s first tourist television channel today, aimed at promoting local destinations and encouraging foreign visitors to return to the Kingdom. The channel – the government’s latest strategy to lure more tourists back – will show domestic attractions to foreign visitors while they are here.

Programmes are set to commence on January 9 on government-run Channel 11 and UBC’s sub-channel nine. Both stations have a one-year contract to run the programming for 10 hours each day. The channel will feature all kinds of tourism information, including daily news, travel documentaries, highlights of tourism activities, new services and people in the industry and other relevant topics. The government passed the project on to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in the middle of the year.

The TAT will spend Bt100 million on the project. The authority had initially planned to work with MCOT Plc, but the Budget Bureau did not approve the plan due to a lack of returns. The TAT instead opted to work with RTN Television Plc to produce programming. Thaksin is conducting an opening ceremony for the channel at the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium today.

Currently, Channel 11 broadcasts Andaman News, which features local news, interviews and weather forecasts in English in Phuket, Phang Nga, and Krabi. The programme runs from 8.30am to 9am, Monday to Friday. The same content is also broadcast on Radio Thailand FM 90.5.

Suchat Sritama, The Nation