Coinciding crises and tourism in contemporary Thailand

Abstract

Although tourism crises have received increased attention in recent years, there has been a lack of research into coinciding crises and their effects on tourism. Correspondingly, there has been little theoretical work done on their nature, interaction and dynamics. In this article, we seek to redress this, and extend the study of tourism crises by looking at antecedent crises of different orders that interact and escalate in ways that damage tourism. As a case of this, we discuss the situation in Thailand from 2007 to 2009, and explain how two different orders of antecedent crises – an economic meltdown, and an escalating political crisis – interacted to form an acute and complex mega-crisis, which ultimately facilitated the spectacular occupation of Bangkok's two main airports by the opposition to the government in November 2008; this in turn completely disrupted, and provoked a sharp and prolonged drop in, tourist arrivals to the country. Through a discussion of this case, we raise some important theoretical issues regarding the development of tourism crises generally, most notably the analytical importance of human agency within unfurling antecedent crises.

Keywords:

• tourism crises
• coinciding crises
• Thailand
• sociology of tourism
• airports