TOURISM FESTIVAL

Tanya and I visited last week's Thailand Tourism Festival. For an event that was billed as 'a showcase event targeting Thai and expatriate residents' there was a distinct lack of English in the promotions from more than 300 participating companies. I would guess that less than 10 per cent had anything English in their arsenal of marketing literature.
Although a lot of effort had been made to make things look impressive, I seriously wonder if the majority of visitors had any real intentions of buying. Sure, Thai people do like their holidays like anyone else but with the economy as it is right now I think leisure is one area that will suffer.
On the plus side we did begin our Christmas shopping. There were selections of handicrafts stalls from the various regions in Thailand. This picture shows some particularly colourful batiks from the south.