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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we are discussing the Thai PM making some comments about the positive recovery in tourism. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Prayut hails tourism revival. A lot of information in this article, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail and read about that information. I am going to quote a small excerpt here for our purposes. Quoting directly: "Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is pleased about the recovery of Tourism and thanked agencies concerned for their efforts to organize campaigns to attract foreign visitors, Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said. Quote: "The Prime Minister is delighted that the tourism sector is making a recovery with several positive signs. He also thanked relevant agencies and the private sector for their efforts to organize campaigns to promote tourism while maintaining Health precautions," Mr. Anucha said.

So yeah just overall, I think this is worth mentioning because man going back this time last year for example, it was my opinion, it was hard to say where things were headed and I wasn't thrilled as folks could probably see from some of my, especially my opinion videos about some of the initiatives that have been taken and some of the policy decisions but okay water under the bridge, moving on. All things considered, in my opinion we did manage to get Thailand re-opened, we got it re-opened well. I think the high season is something to be proud of quite frankly. The 2022 high season, going into the end of 2022 coming into 2023, was in my opinion whether conscious or not, kind of a something of a group effort by Thailand just generally. I think everybody just kind of got together and said 'hey we need to have a good high season and that is what we are going to do' and that is kind of what I saw. Quite honestly it sort of reminds me, I went to the Mardi Gras before and after Katrina; the one the year before and the one right after which was a real weird juxtaposition to sort of see the same environment under radically different conditions. But I remember the second Mardi Gras, it actually, in certain ways the first one is kind of etched into my brain because it was the first Mardi Gras I went to. The second one, the one post Katrina is the one that I remember more vividly because I remember just kind of being in awe or having a feeling of admiration toward the people of New Orleans for basically saying, "hey look, Mardi Gras is our thing. It brings in x amount of Tourism Revenue." I remember talking to folks on the ground at the time when I was there for that Year's celebration if you will, I remember talking to people and anecdotally they said "hey you know Mardi Gras is worth a billion dollars in tax revenue for the City of New Orleans." We are putting it on, we are having it, this is important. 

I kind of felt, for lack of a better word, that same attitude amongst folks in the summer last year in '22 leading into high season that there was kind of a, if only implied but there was kind of a group effort, all of us were just sort of thinking that I think, "hey let's get Thailand re-opened. It's high season, let's put our best foot forward, let's do what we can do to get tourism back." I think Thailand did a great job on that. I think they continue to do so. Relevant policy makers as well as folks in the private sector are making good strides to again put our best foot forward, keep tourism where it needs to be; keep the tourism numbers high, keep attracting tourists because this is a great place. Thailand is a lovely place to travel to; it should be among one of the top tourism destinations in the world, if it isn't already. Hopefully this trend will continue but I do have to say, I couldn't agree more with the sentiments of the Prime Minister and I am really happy to see that Thailand, just everybody, kind of in a concerted effort, everybody just kind of stepped up, did what we had to do and we got through the end of 2022. And quite honestly we did it well I think. I know tourism numbers are not where they were in 2019 but look, look what we are coming off of. This has been 3 years now of just total shutdown and decimation of that overall sector and we are now seeing it turn around really fundamentally. I hope this will continue moving forward and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.