Fellow Rotarians, 

I hope everyone enjoyed their past long weekend with the Songkran substitution holidays. To refresh your memories briefly with our previous guest speaker Imtiaz Muqbil, he shared the story of how Thailand’s tourism sector has grown tremendously for the past few decades. Yet, despite such growth, we have unsuccessfully prepared ourselves for the potential disruption that we are facing right now. We have often overly stated the concept of sustainability, yet applied so little of this notion. Let’s hope the current situation will teach us something that can guide us to a more meaningful approach.
 
On a different note, I want to take this opportunity to thank the CDWS team for their dedication and effort. The CDWS team recently took a trip to Trat not only to inspect the water systems, but also to visit various schools where our notable Rotarians donated the library kits. The CDWS team has worked tirelessly while enjoying their trips and making new friends along the way, making CDWS one of the signature projects of RCBS.
 
This Friday, we will resume our regular luncheon meetings and I’m delighted to say we have a full program. PP John Quarmby and Rtn.Klaus will tell us about our Service projects, followed by two classification interviews. The classification interview is a perfect opportunity for us to get to know our fellow interviewee Rotarians even better while perhaps enjoy a moment to get to see them roasted. I shall look forward to seeing everyone at the luncheon meeting.
 
Have a good weekend and Sawasdee krub!
 

President Yod Tantianunanont

Imtiaz Muqbil, Executive Editor, Travel Impact Newswire
 
Our guest speaker, Imtiaz Muqbil, is one of the longest serving travel-trade journalists in the Asia Pacific. He was born in February 1956 in Mumbai, India, he studied at St Peter’s High, a boarding school in the scenic Indian hill-station of Panchgani. He moved to Bangkok in November 1978, and joined the Bangkok Post as a sub-editor/writer.
 
Imtiaz has covered dozens of travel industry summits, annual general meetings and conferences... PATA, World Travel & Tourism Council, UN World Tourism Organization, International Air Transport Association, International Hotels & Restaurants Association, United Federation of Travel Agents Associations, International Hotel Investment Forum and more. He is probably the Asia-Pacific region’s leading Travel & Tourism historian and has covered this industry and region for 40 years
 
His talk gave us a perspective on the future of Thai tourism from a completely new perspective... one that will hopefully launch a new movement in pursuit of solutions in these challenging times.
 
Imtiaz noted that "...this new era is not just about rebuilding tourism or dealing with crises, but about the national security and stability of Thailand with Tourism a major player in safeguarding this stability. It is no longer just a creator of jobs and income but a source of national security..."
 
There is no industry like Travel & Tourism and no country like Thailand that offers such great diversity. Thailand’s USP has been hit by just about every crisis known to mankind... Coups, SARS, floods and more.
 
So Imtiaz asks what do we learn from these crises? There is no difference in the way you treat a health crisis or a political crisis... both Thailand and Tourism was already quite overweight when the Covid-19 crisis hit. Tourism had become fat, not fit. It had “grown” but in all the wrong places
 
The current crisis has been worse than all the previous crises combined. A lot of talk recovery, resilience, reset, rethink, rebuild, reshape, restructure, re-this, re-that and re-the other. But the most important RE is REwind and REplay... A rewind to projects and activities – such as the Visit Thailand Years 1987 - 1994. But we paid the price of having to cope with the challenge of growth and the politicization of Thai tourism providing high quality tourism without degrading the natural resources. Thai tourism is a marketing genius and a management dunce and it is this paradox that makes The Greatest Story in Global Tourism History.
 
Imtiaz provided a number of quotes from the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, which you can find in the link below.
 
The failure of globalization and the global leadership crisis and geopolitical power struggles, the rich-poor income gap, environmental disasters, deforestation, bushfires, floods, water shortages... these are the crossroads at which we stand today and requires exactly the same path as the coronavirus crisis... Identify the problem, be open and transparent, study the history, track down ALL the cases and treat the cause, not just the symptoms.
 
A fascinating talk with a treasure trove of information on the current state of Tourism in Thailand and how to get back on track.
 
By Patrick Gauvain
 
 
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/b6973ab9e3e74ebb9b064d57ba26525220200904205313/0038c7803a920dec51caa3964b6dd30c20200904205413/bb4b7c
 
https://www.travel-impact-newswire.com/2020/01/unmatched-lectures-on-thailand-the-greatest-story-in-global-tourism-history/


 

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Rotary - September 2020

 a new design format for Rotary magazine.

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