Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the fact it looks like most Thai Officials are pretty eager to negotiate with the US. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Weak baht 'not enough to drive tourism'. "Mr. Adith" - and who they are referring to is Adith Chairattananon, Honorary Secretary-General of the Association of Thai Travel Agents - quoting further: "Mr. Adith said that while the US policy has sparked fears of a recession, which could impact the global economy and tourism sentiment further in the short term, the Thai Government should urgently negotiate with the US to mitigate the possible impact. Quote: "What is more worrying than economic issues and currency fluctuations is the declining confidence in safety in Thailand," he said."

Now on that note, I mean yeah, we had an earthquake. California gets earthquakes. I mean I don't think anybody is going to hold it against Thailand that we had an earthquake out in this area. The other thing is this, we have heard this out of China that Thailand is somehow inherently unsafe. I feel safer in Thailand than I feel pretty much anywhere else in the world. Now I have lived here a long time but objectively, like I don't walk around at night, down back alleys in the dark in most any other city, maybe in certain other places in East Asia, but yeah safety, I don't know where people are getting that. That just is kind of red herring issue to me. That said, quoting further: "Many Chinese tourists still have concerns about visiting Thailand..." Well is it really their concern? Or is it the policy of their Government to try to leverage their people in terms of tourists against various countries to try to basically get policy concessions out of those countries and we have talked about that at length. Quoting further: "..due to the recent earthquake and widespread publicity about scams said Mr. Adith." Well scams of what? I mean are people going to come down here and do a bus tour and then magically some person from a call center is going to rip them off for $100,000 equivalent or something? I think that is kind of ridiculous. And frankly, again I think this whole issue of Chinese people are scared of touring Thailand is highly politicized and frankly I find it very disingenuous. That said, quoting further: "Even though some provinces, such as Phuket did not face any impact from last week's natural disaster, the tourism industry may still be affected." Okay. 

Again, natural disasters occur. I don't know how you exactly hold that against Thailand. Meanwhile, again I find these arguments on the safety issues of Thailand generally, to be pretty much spurious on their face. That being said, we have a huge influx tourists from virtually every other country. Thailand in real terms as I have discussed, not in sort of "cooked books" terms of tourists, did surprisingly well in the last high season notwithstanding the fact that Chinese tourists were conspicuously absent for the most part. So again, while we would love to see Chinese tourists come here, if it's going to continue to be this "hey, we are going to try to browbeat you into something, in order for you to have our tourists", what kind of relationship is that?