Transcript of the above video:

I decided to go ahead and make this video you know because I came upon a rather old edition of the Bangkok Post print edition just sitting around here in the office. I was cleaning some things up and I found this section. This is from the business section the Bangkok Post print edition Friday February 19th, 2021. 

A very different paradigm was operating February of 2021 compared to where we are at here in June 2021, so first of all understand that. I thought this was a rather interesting article; the article is titled: Ambiguous Growth Drivers Cloud Outlook. Quoting directly: Thailand's economic outlook in the post COVID-19 period remains vague because of ambiguous growth drivers with tourism's contribution to GDP unlikely to reach 30% as planned, says a veteran Economist." Quoting further: "Although a fiscal stimulus plan was about to be unveiled when it was shelved by a second wave of COVID-19, planners still have not determined how the economy moves forward when the pandemic ends said Supavud Saicheua, Advisor at Kiatnakin Patra Financial Group." Quoting further: "We don't have a good answer because our engine of growth has mainly been tourism said Mr. Supavud."  

Well a couple of things here. Going back and just quoting again: "Planners have still not determined how the economy moves when the pandemic ends." Well it has never been my understanding that Thailand operated on an economic central planning model. I do understand there is a bureaucracy here that does things especially with respect to commerce and trade, that can be a little bit more interventionist compared to other laissez-faire economies for example. Now that stated, this is not a video discussing whether or not that is good or bad, it is more video that just discusses this salient fact. Thailand's Tourism Industry operated in my opinion without a great deal of government oversight. Well it had oversight but without a great deal of planning. It came about organically so maybe the best plan for tourism in Thailand is to just simply allow there to be tourism in Thailand i.e. get the country open back up for tourism and then worry about the plans later because as noted within the article itself, no one could plan for COVID.

I mean to me the notion, I kind of thought in a paradigm sense, the world with the end of the Soviet Union especially, the world kind of moved past the notion that Central Planning exclusively I should add but Central Planning just in in its own right but also as the exclusive driver of how to make an economy; of how to drive an economy; of how to propel an economy forward, I thought with the end of the Soviet Union that notion was kind of laid to rest. Economies come about organically and the notion of planning a Tourism Revival into existence to me seems to me to be at odds with how the world really works.

Now it is one man's opinion and I certainly could prove to be wrong. I would say the best plan for Thailand and let me be clear this is very different than for example yeah a lot of planning has to logistically go into for example rolling out the vaccines, that is not what I am talking about here. I am just talking about tourism once we get past this. Remove the quarantine; everything gets back to being hunky dory and everybody is moving along. Do we need a plan really other than to just get the country open back up? Then at that point promote tourism, promote it to the hilt as much as much as we possibly can? Past that, I don't really see what needs to be planned with respect for the Revival of Tourism here in Thailand.