Day 5 (8th Jan): Cerulean

I started off my last day in Chiang Mai with a 2 hour long interview with the Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (Chiang Mai branch) in the morning. He gave us deeper insights to the tourism industry in Chiang Mai and tried his best to answer all our questions even though he just came from another meeting and as he shared with us, had scheduled another meeting with Dunman High students in the afternoon, for which I am very grateful.

Blue skies from the bridge on the way (on foot) to the Tourism Authority

He shared about the government efforts to alleviate the Chinese tourist problem by printing guidebooks in Chinese on behaviours and actions they should observe and take note of in Thailand. He emphasised how they crafted the guidebook in a friendly tone: refraining from using imperatives (‘should’, ‘must’) and making it sound like a set of rules but choosing instead to present it as ways to enjoy a pleasant journey in Thailand. This reflected what I had thought tourism should be (on Day 2) and I liked the way they framed the guidebook. They advocated for a mutual understanding and innate willingness to follow this guidelines rather than a punitive and imperative stance and this is something I feel that all countries can learn from. Communicating and understanding is important in order to minimise friction and conflicts between locals and tourists.

He also brought up how he felt that the media had a part to play in the issue of Chinese tourists. At the same time that the media was reporting on some of the poor behaviour of Chinese tourists, he mentioned that Caucasian tourists had also exhibited poor behaviours that Chinese tourists did not (getting drunk by the roadsides, dressing skimpily, chatting up female waitresses at bars).

This provided me with an alternative perspective to consider in the issue of Chinese tourists. Are prevailing stereotypes of Chinese tourists exacerbated by the aggressive media coverage?  A point to note here would be that there are hardly reports of poor Caucasian behaviour observed in mainstream media. A simple Google search churns out articles about poor Chinese behaviour instead.

In this age where technology is such an integral part of our daily lives, I think that this is an important example of how we should evaluate and assess the information we obtain from various media sources. With the speed and reach of online media sources especially social media outlets, media stereotypes are propagated rapidly through mainstream media as well as citizen journalism. Hence, we should take care to evaluate sources based on their reliability and be aware of the type of viewpoints that they take in their reporting.

In the afternoon, we interviewed the monks in the Monk Chat Club at Wat Chedi Luang and chatted with them about Buddhism. Through our chat with them, I could feel their devotion and commitment to Buddhism and I respect them a lot for it. They readily shared their knowledge and the teachings of Buddhism with us even though it must have been tiring to talk to tourist after tourist. It was heartwarming to see a Caucasian tourist passing out bottled water to all the monks who were there. It was a simple gesture but I felt that this is the sort of tourists, and above that, humans we should be.

Sunset at Wat Chedi Luang
It’s rare to see clouds in Chiang Mai where the sky is usually clear and a vast blue expanse.

Lastly, we had a focus group discussion with the CMU students about how they felt about the Chinese tourists, especially those who visited the university after having watched the movie, Lost in Thailand. I truly appreciated how willing they were to share their thoughts and opinions and for accepting our request on the last night of our stay (the discussion lasted for almost an hour) in order to help us with our research.

The trip has definitely been an enjoyable one and I’m glad that the trip turned out to be a good mix of work, learning and fun together with my group.

Michelle Neoh