Where's the Riot? 22nd January 1999 Back to News Menu About the Rat Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine Join the APMF email list Monthly updates on new content

Part of the amazing success of the "Amazing Thailand" tourist campaign was manna from heaven. Now that is not taking anything away from a particularly devoted and hard working team in Bangkok.. but this particular manna from heaven was particularly helpful in raising Thailand tourist arrivals, and was the perception that neighboring countries were dangerous and were being pulled apart by riots. Malaysia has suffered a major loss in tourist arrivals, which Malaysian authorities explain by the continuance of the "smog" well after it disappeared and also by the perception that Malaysia was in the middle of some sort of civil war. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Any demonstrations that occurred in Malaysia were contained in small areas and there have been absolutely no reports of tourists being caught up in them. Similarly, Indonesia must seem to many foreigners as an extremely dangerous place. To some extent it is true, but to tourists, especially in places like Bali, the risk is almost nil, as long as simple and sensible precautions are taken. Travel agents seem to be very quick to strike off a destination because of exaggerated reports, and competing tourist destinations naturally overplay the danger of visiting their competing destinations. At present Malaysian and Indonesian hotels have very low occupancy resulting in low rates. Smart travellers can take advantage of this. Those travelling on business to Indonesia and Malaysia have written to the Rat expressing surprise (and in some cases disappointment!) at the fact they didn't see any riots or demonstrations. The simple answer of course is that there have been no riots or demonstrations in Malaysia for a month or two, and when there were, no tourists were in any danger of getting caught in the middle. As far as Indonesia is concerned, Chinese or those who look like Chinese should take extra precautions, and Europeans have little to fear from being caught up in trouble as long as reasonable precautions are taken. And while you are here, try the APMF's hotel and restaurant and entertainment reviews for a start.

© Asia Pacific Management Forum 1999
The views expressed here may not necessarily reflect those of Orient Pacific Century or partners of the Asia Pacific Management Forum

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