Despite Chiang Mai’s huge growth over the last few years Chiang Mai has been struggling of recent. New hotels, spas and resorts have been popping up all over the city and countryside, yet figures indicate Chiang Mai’s hotel occupancy rates are at a ten year low.
We are worried about this and are sad to read the many news stories that publish various facts and figures from all different sources about this decline. Is Chiang Mai being promoted well enough and to the right type of people?
We love Chiang Mai as a place to live and a place to travel and want to return our thanks to the place that has given us so much by finding out the reasons for this decline and trying to work out what the solutions are and if we can help in any way.
Chiang Mai is a rich city, with so much to offer a visitor. The locals are some of the friendliest in Thailand, and the surrounding countryside is truly stunning. Its history is long and diverse and with modern developments, it’s fast becoming a modern city too.
We want you to get involved; we want to know your experiences of Chiang Mai. What you like and dislike about it? If you live or have lived here, do you feel the recent development of the city is a good thing? We believe there is something for everyone here, do you feel the same?
Over the coming weeks we shall concentrate on this decline to increase our understanding on what the issues are and what solutions you have to keep Chiang Mai the paradise that it is.
We want to increase the visibility of Chiang Mai as a place to live and travel, for the long term benefit of the local people with whom we love so much. Lets together try to establish a voice strong enough to be able to contribute our ideas to the authorities that be and help them to make the right, informed decisions.
4 Comments
Very noble indeed, not sure how far you’ll get though as most of big people in Thailand are corrupt and cause of it anything good people try to do ends up delayed or money ends up gone halfway through a project and then they give up.
Hats off to you guys for trying though!
Stayed in chiang mai a fair bit over the last few years, seen lots of changes and I have to agree with Mark, things do get done in the end even with the corruption but does take forever. Just whether it’s for the good of chiang mai and if it has been thought out properly enough in the first place.
Just had a thought, surely if there are so many new hotels then occupancy would be down. Although, if any of you were in chiang mai for the smog earlier this year will know that’s got to be a major part of why people haven’t been coming and I don’t blame them.
Thanks for your comments so far. We agree that corruption is a big problem in Thailand still and that many good intentions end up wasted but still believe it’s worth a try for the sake of preserving Chiang Mai’s rich history and to help promote a better future for local people.
The smog last year was terrible for tourism especially after the huge success of the Royal Flora 2006 project which saw over 2 and half million visitors. These high visitor numbers meant a large drop in visitor numbers from February onwards.
We feel that the pollution in Chiang Mai should be the number one priority for the authorities, as local people are the ones suffering the worst effects of this. Local newspaper reports at the time suggested a 30% increase of the number of people admitted to hospital for breathing related problems. This is not acceptable and will likely have a major negative impact on tourism which it seems to have done earlier this year.
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