Tourism is on the decline in Thailand. The official reports that are provided by the government state that it is down as much as 10% but for the people that I know that are directly involved in the tourism industry believe that this number is grossly understated.
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Thailand has some pretty crazy nightlife. From dive bars to really swanky discos, it seems the world truly is your oyster if you want to party. Although quite famous for go-go bars and other such places where the women are actually available for rent, this is not what most of the nightlife is all about but it is what most people focus on when they refer to it.
I think that for the most part people already participate in the nightlife an awful lot when they are traveling here and in most places these clubs are permitted to stay open until 2am despite the fact that the national law is a midnight cut-off point.
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While I do applaud the Tourism ministers concern for the tourism sector, which is 20% of the Kingdom's entire GDP, i don't think that he is really seeing this aspect of tourism from a realistic perspective. Like many politicians I think that Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn has a difficult time seeing the forest from the trees. Extending the drinking hours isn't going to change a thing when you consider these two things.
- The bars already stay open as late as they want to since the laws generally are not enforced
- Local municipalities make up their own rules depending on the attitude of the local police force
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The way the law is meant to work is that alcohol sales are allowed from 10am to 2pm, and then there is a strange period of 3 hours in the afternoon where sale of alcohol is prohibited, and then from 5pm to midnight sales are allowed again. The fact that a 2am cutoff time is even mentioned by the minister is kind of strange.
The real problem facing this country in diminishing tourism numbers is not the fact that tourists are forced to return to their hotels at 2am by oppressive alcohol laws(and this really isn't the case, nor is not being allowed to party all night "oppressive")... the problem is that Thailand Immigration have been real a-holes for about 10 years in a row, taxi mafias and thugs rip off tourists in the streets with impunity (because the cops are in on it,) and scams targeting vulnerable tourists are friggin everywhere.
The fact that the Thai currency is really strong (some would suggest that this is an artificial and intentionally manipulated bubble that will soon burst) also negatively affects people's decision to travel here. The Pound is worth about half what it was 10 years ago and the English were a very large part of the tourism industry. Combine this with the fact that for 15 years or so Immigration has been chasing off the backpacker culture in an effort to get "the right kind" of tourists and I truly believe that Thailand's tourism glory days are behind it.
Fiddling with alcohol laws that are very rarely enforced on any sort of meaningful level isn't going to change a thing.
Did you really just reference "One night in Bangkok"? :) Nice! It doesn't seem like it would make much sense to put all your eggs in one basket either. I would imagine there are many more things to see and do in Thailand besides just the nightlife.
I found your post to be quite informative and, in the same way, somewhat depressive since I happen to live in tourism-oriented country with some of the issues being frighteningly familiar.
I never had any issues with immigration but I'd say the exchange rate is a huge factor. Australians love going to Thailand and with the weak AUD and their housing bubble popping I'm guessing fewer Aussies are going on vacation. It'd be interesting to see if places like Bali are seeing a similar decline in numbers.
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