Even worse, the research reports that "more than 70 charter flights hauling tourists from China" were canceled (Horn 2010). Yet, more recent political stability has once again begun to calm the nerves of potential visitors. Thus reports are claiming that "If Thailand can maintain political stability, the tourism industry will be one of the major sources of income for the country for the next three years," (Karnjanatawe 2011). The recent stability has corresponded with a continual growth in Thai tourism seen within the 2011-year. Despite even the setbacks of the SARS crisis and the Iraq war in 2003, visitor arrivals had rebounded by 2004 and have continued to remain strong (APEC, 2004). Additionally, global economic trends, mainly the recession much of the world has been experiencing, had kept tourism at a low for several years. Tourism in the country had seen a sharp decline in early 2009 and into 2009, but since later in that year tourism had been slowly increasing (TAT 2010).

Finally, current academic research does show that tourism workers in Thailand lack technological skills, knowledge, language competencies, and comprehensive training. Unfortunately, as of now, tourism education and training in Thailand seem to be major obstacles in attracting tourists and investments in Asia as a whole, along with Thailand in particular. In other words, a lack of human resources and the rigidity of the labor market to meet the various requirements of the tourist industry is a major constraint to tourism development in the region (Pichaichannarong, 2004). Even worse, the personnel within the tourism industry in the region seem to have an extremely limited focus, which is further keeping them from reaching their tourism goals. According to research conducted by the royal Thai Government (2005), the international service standards of Thai tourism employees are merely focused on the hotel industry, which accounts for the major income spending at around 30% annually. In fact, The Ministry of Tourism and Sports (2004) has expressed concerns with other tourism services such as tour guides, international and local transportation businesses, as well as souvenir and jewelry business. Yet, training is still desperately needed in all of these sectors to boost the Thai tourism industry.

To attract tourists back to the country and continue the recent trend of growth, it is widely...

Thailand has major goals for current tourism. One of which is to provide a broader range of tourism services for visitors coming into Thailand. This also includes the objective to increase sales promotion and marketing activities within tourism marketing (TAT 2010). Such efforts will need many within the tourism industry to greater focus on tourism activities, rather than hotel accommodations alone. Many extra tourist activities are already being facilitated by government sponsorship. These are often "tailored to lifestyle and interests, such as train tours, tourism for senior citizens, golf tournaments, tourism with pets and creative music festivals," (TAT 2010). Educational programs for tourism workers have also been a key focus for the Thai government in order to boost tourism levels. In fact, educating tourism workers was set as a top priority in the National Economic Development Plan of 2005-2010 (The Department of Tourism and Sport Development, 2005). Current strategies still need to fulfill this objective. The tourism industry requires that there is a reliable source of trained personnel in all aspects of tourism activity. The intended tourism target for the year to come is likely to be surpassed if these current problems are alleviated.