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Friday, February 7, 2014

The boom of Thailand tourism began in the 1960s when Thailand became a place of rest and recuperation for the soldiers during the Vietnam War (MMH, 2012). Since then, Thailand tourism industry has grown rapidly into a large part of Thailand's economic growth. On December 26, 2004, the day traditionally known as Boxing Day, Thailand was hit by a devastating tsunami that killed over 150,000 people (Fox News, 2005). Those who survived where left without friends, families and many had their business, their livelihood, destroyed. Fishermen and workers with smaller shops were affected. Many had merchandise, equipment and/or buildings damaged or completely washed away (Rigg, 2005). Immediately after the tsunami, there was a 90% drop in hotel reservations and approximately 100,000 people working in the tourism industry in Thailand lost their jobs (International Labor Organization , 2005). "'Even though we can quickly rebuild hotels, it will take some time to draw back tourists to the affected areas,' said Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while touring the disaster area..." (Shadra).


Work Cited

After the tsunami In Thailand, the tourist industry fights back. (2005, April 11). Retrieved January 9, 2014, from International Labor Organization website: http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_075558/lang--en/index.htm

MMH Master Class in Bangkok. (2012, February 12). Tourism industry in Thailand [Blog post]. Retrieved from MMH in Asia Master Class in Bangkok website: http://blogs.cornell.edu/cornellmasterclassinbangkok/2012/02/21/tourism-industry-in-thailand/

Rigg, J., Law, L., Tan-Mullins, M., & Grundy-Warr, C. (2005). The Indian Ocean tsunami:
socio-economic impacts in Thailand. Geographical Journal, 171(4), 374-379.
doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2005.00175_3.x

Sharda Prashad Toronto, S. (n.d). Tourism industry crippled. Toronto Star (Canada).

Thai Predicted Tsunami; No One Listened. (2005). Retrieved January 10, 2014, from Fox News website: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/01/13/thai-predicted-tsunami-no-one-listened/

Thailand's tsunami-hit tourism. (2005, March 24). Retrieved January 9, 2014, from BBC News website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4375815.stm

2 comments:

  1. Rachel,
    The Boxing Day tsunami devastated dozens of countries and cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their livelihood. Your blog is a great resource for people to understand the huge impact tourism can have in bringing these jobs back and supporting these ravaged communities. I have a similar blog for the tsunami ravaged tourism in Indonesia. If you don't mind, I'd like to link your blog to mine at http://travelindo.weebly.com/. We can collaborate in bringing tourists to this beautiful part of the world.

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  2. Rachel,
    Each of our blogs touches on how a devastating tsunami has impacted a different Asian nation. It is a good idea to see what impacts these tsunamis have had on tourism in these areas. I think it would be great if we could each write about how each of our countries have tried to recover from the devastating tsunamis, and what may or may not have helped them recover. In this way we can see what may have worked in a recovery effort. http://tsunamirecoveryinjapan.blogspot.com/

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