“Tourism In International Relations”
Lecture : Drs Usmar Salam MIS
Agi Ekasaputro : 07/253704/SP/22049
Comparing Sustainable Development Between Tourism In Thailand And Vietnam
As two adjacent nation in South East Asia, Vietnam and Thailand are strategically located at the best spot in Indochina Region (which was became the reason for the US and Soviets to dominate this area during the previous Cold War). Regardless of their political difference (Vietnam is a Socialist Republic while Thailand is a Monarchy), each nation has its own uniqueness and tons of tourism potential whether its society, culture or the landscapes. These two nations also has two different history which later in this article will affect their appearance to their tourism. Lets talk about Thailand first. Thailand is a nation which borders with Myanmar and Laos in the north, Malaysia in the south and Cambodia in the east. Its nation is ruled by a king but since 1932, due to protest by the students and military, king’s role is limited since then and at present, Thailand is a nation with constitutional monarchy as its form of government. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is merely a symbol in a state ceremony but still has the highest power in Thailand Government while the head of government is led by a prime minister with a parliamentary body that consisted of members from civilian and the military (just like Indonesia during the new order regime). Nevertheless, Thailand has its heaviest problem in building its tourism. That matter lies in politics. As we all aware, Thailand is one among the many nation in the world that has high political unstability rate. It is marked by numbers of coup d’etat that happened in Thailand since 1932 until 2006. Not to mention another latest political turmoil that leads to complete isolation of Suvarnabhumi Airport which upset many tourist because they can’t go out and have their vacation. Riots in Bangkok that happened few months ago also hit on Thailand tourism very hard (and it made my departure postponed for two months, sigh..). So hard that even few travel agents were making a massive discount on tour service to Thailand because that nation has experienced heavy economic and credit loss because of the insecurity.
Thailand is Thailand and Vietnam is Vietnam. After viewing on short course on Thailand, let’s go see Vietnam. Vietnam is borders with Laos and Cambodia in the west, South China Sea in the east and south and with People’s Republic Of China in the north. Vietnam also has some historical similarities with Indonesia like experience of being oppressed by European colonials and efforts to gain freedom by hard means through an independence war. In 1940’s, Vietnam was one of Japan’s defense line in south east Asia along with Burma and Malaya to block Allied attack from India and China. In 1945, Ho Chi Minh, a leader of Vietnamese Communist Party proclaimed Vietnam as an independent nation. A response soon be made bay Allied. Same like Indonesia, Allied forces rushed into Vietnam using Japan’s soldiers disarmament and to free the interneur as the reason. But behind the allied forces, there were also French soldier to reoccupy Vietnam and they argued that Vietnam was not ready to gain independence. Ho Chi Minh dind’t accept this and with his army, Viet Minh, they fought bravely against the French Expeditionary Forces before finally humiliated them in Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Soon after, French bailed out from Vietnam and that nation was divided into two with Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic Of Vietnam remained in the northern region with Hanoi as its capitol and Republic Of Vietnam remained in the southern region with Saigon as its capitol. Northern Vietnam was backed by the Reds (Soviet Union and mainly China) and the Southern Vietnam was “assisted” by US Troops. Years by years the war gets worse. It even spread to its neighbouring country such as Laos and Cambodia which during the beginning was neutral. Vietnam war finally climaxed in April 30th 1975 when North Vietnamese Army managed to surpress the ARVN and US troops. Saigon was occupied and Vietnam war has officially ended. At the same day, Indochina fell into the grasp of communism. In 1989, the Wall crumbled and in 1991 Cold War has ended with the dissolvement of Soviet Union. Few years later, Vietnam entered ASEAN and tried to change its face in front of its South East Asian Brethren and since then, they tried to rebuild their tourism into the global standard.
` I can’t tell you about Thailand’s tourism as a whole because my source is limited. All I know is that after the political riots in Bangkok, Thailand government has executed various efforts in order to save its own tourism. One of its policy was by spending about 16 trillion Baht. These fund would be used to develop Thailand’s tourism for further four years. Their government really traumatic after Suvarnabhumi’s blockade. Another program that is being taken is TAT’s Seven Greens Programme, Thai Tourism Going Green, and Green Leaf Certification Programme. These programs provides a conceptual framework and practical assistance to build balance between tourism promotion and environmental sustainability. This program facilitated the formation from strategic cooperation and provide a cooperative framework in replantation implementation pioneering in seven area.which consisted of:
Green Heart: to endorse tourist to have social and environmental responsibility and also to be part in global efforts to preserve and protect environment from the tourist’s acitivites.
Green Logistics: to build environmental friendly facility such as transportation to minimalize the direct and indirect effects to the environment.
Green Destinations: to promote environmental friendly tourism sites management
Green Communities: to support community-based tourism whether in countryside or in the town toward tourism management that more responsible to environmental conservation, local tradition and life style.
Green Activites: to promote tourism activity that balanced with local community.
Green Service: to endorse the tourism provider to create a positive first impression to the tourist.
Green [Plus]: untuk to endorse CSR among the providers by supporting them to help the local communities
Thailand itself has many tourist sites. Whether its natural or social. They has beach sites in Pattaya and various restaurant in the Chao Praya River which will satisfy the appetite of culinary tourists. Thailand is also famous for its sexual tourism because it is legalized since they pay taxes. Apparently transex womens are very interesting subjects in Thailand
As for Vietnam, they have VNAT’s (Vietnam National Administration of Tourism) it is an governmental organisasi that has numerous tasks and has authorities tourism sector in Vietnam. Public Service management and to perform tasks and to rule various tourism corporation is also VNAT’s job. The present leader of VNAT is Nguyen Manh Cuong. Vietnam also has various good places to visit. From Hanoi to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), there are many spot you can visit. In Hanoi they have One Pillar Pagoda (built in 1049) and the Temple of Literature (built in 1070). During the war, Hanoi was the most defended city. The famous site is Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum because like other communists leader, none of them was buried or cremated. They preserved in a mauseloum in order to show to their people how devotious they are to the country. It happened to Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Kim Il Sung. Another famous spot is the Ha Long Bay (which you can see in one of James Bond Movie, Tomorrow Never Dies). This place is almost nominated as one of seven wonders because of its view. In Ho Chi Minh City, you can see the Chu Chi Tunnel. Because the Vietnamese army ingrained their people the sense of Xa, a duty to land and country, they built these tunnel to fight the americans. Since they use ant as their moral model, they consider that a person can never go up in ant society, they only moved further in, these tunnel are very compatible with their battle doctrine.
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