Thailand's sorrow

TRASH-STREWN beaches, tribes reduced to selling cheap trinketsand tourists on the prowl for prostitutes, have forced many inthe travel industry to promote a healthier 'eco-tourism' inboth Thailand and Vietnam before it is too late.

A small organisation called Alternative Tourism ofThailand now conducts tours for foreigners from NGOS whocome to this Southeast Asian nation to see what can be done tohelp the people, rather than simply viewing the gorgeous temples and going for other attractions.

Improving tourism in Thailand is not only an ethical matter. It is also good for the economy because a glut of new hotelshave opened their doors only to find a drop in the number oftourists visiting Thailand. The four million or so tourists whoarrive each year spend us $3 billion or more, making tourismthe largest ever source of foreign exchange in the country.

But lately, many tourists have been skipping Thailandbecause of its escalating AIDS epidemic, its fraying reputationas a commercialised tourist trap, and a worldwide recessionwhich has been keeping travelers closer to home.

Pattaya beach, for example, has blossomed from the '60swhen it provided us soldiers with 'rest and recreation' amongprostitutes and water sports during the Vietnam war, untilits present-day fame as the largest and naughtiest beachresort in Asia.

Pattaya's 30,000 hotel rooms, 100 miles southeast ofBangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, are suffering low occupancy.Environmentalists, meanwhile, rail against hotel sewers whichdump waste into the coastal waters. As a result, many of thebig hotels had their own water treatment units built. The ThaiHotels Association now gives 'Green Lxaves' to Pattaya's ecologically correct hotels as recognition.

Tourists visiting Thailand's coastal resorts, however, oftenwitness garbage being dumped from their boats into watersfrequented by scuba divers. And if a reef att6cts vacationers,the boatpeople simply toss their anchors over the side, permanently damaging long stretches of fragile reef below.

Thailand's most famous beach resorts like Pattaya,Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Phi Phi and the Similan Islands, allsuffer from severe pollution and degradation, thanks to thetourism industry, according to environmentalists.

The Coastal Resources Management Project jointly run byThailand's National Environment Board and the University ofRhode Island in the US is now trying to help save the nation'scoasts and raise awareness about eco-tourism.Financed by theAgency for International Development, us, the project is trying to convince boat operators to avoid damaging the coraland to stop dumping garbage at sea - especially plastic bagsand oily bilge water - which is especially deadly to coral.

Special mooring buoys have been placed strategically sothat boatpeople do not anchor whenever they stop. The groupalso warns souvenir shops about the law banning collection ofliving coral, although Halong bay fisherfolk lurk among therocks in the islands with an array of tourist souvenirs laid outalong the sand, waiting for boats to dock, so that visitors canbuy baubles while exploring caves and cliffs.

A similar warning comes from the CHUMA Primate RescueCenter's founder, Margaret Himathongkom, who said, "As anact of protest against the cruelty and torture that befall thesepoor creatures, boycott any establishment that serves wildlifecuisine, or that keeps captured wild animals as tourist andamusement attraction - and yes, I am referring to hotels aswell - in cramped, filthy conditions with inadequate dietaryrequirements and without fresh clean drinking water availableat all times."

Leome Vejjajiva of the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation ofThailand, while agreeing upon this point, said, "Elephants aretreated badly everywhere in Thailand. Elephant keepers stickneedles and spikes into the elephants'legs to make them dancefor tourists. There is an animal farm for tourists nearBangkok's Floating Market which is a revolting place. Theysay, they get 2,000 tourists a day there. They milk snake venomin front of tourists so many times a day, that the snakes'mouths bleed."

Vejjajiva said that the government is'trying'to crack downon abusers by staging police raids. But often, culprits alreadydecamp before authorities arrive. Eco-tourism advocates inThailand have yet to fight another enemy - hundreds ofexclusive golf courses carved out from rice fields, coastal areasand other idyllic settings which are draining the community ofvaluable water resource.