THE POLITICAL CHANGE THAT AFFECTS THAI TOURISM

Abstract

          This article aimed at studying the political change that affects Thai tourism. This was the qualitative research. The methods used in this research included the synthesis of academic documents, the analysis of secondary data related to the synthesis of the political change that affects Thai tourism, through research papers related to the political change that affects Thai tourism. Data were retrieved from documents, textbooks, journals, and data sources.

          The political uncertainty, the political changes and the changes in various rules and regulations of Thailand so far has been affecting the tourism industry of Thailand in terms of image, income, as well as the number of tourists. It was found from the study that the political change that affects Thai tourism was in the “transitional period”. Several times of economic and politic crisis along with the change of global structure in 21^st Century had an impact on the foreign tourists. The highest level of impact was related to the politics and the safety of lives and properties. The uncertain politics really affected the tourism currently. Also, the entrepreneurs were affected – the political chaos was the important risk factor that considerably affected the expansion of entrepreneurial sector. Political crisis affected the Thai tourism in 5 aspects including on environment, on society and politics, on technology, on health, and on economy. The expansion of tourism was at lower rate. The risk of the businesses related    to services and the total change of economic condition in regional level and local level had an impact on the spending of consumers and the travelling of people. The political chaos also affected the national economy and tourists’ safety resulted in negative image of poor economy and uncertain politics related to tourism.