Thailand is still number one for international tourist destinations. Despite the tsunami that took the lives of thousands, including many foreigners, the world votes for it when it comes to services, hospitability and pristine environment. Below this veil of perfection however lie serious problems that may change for worse this perception of the country as paradise on earth. They are both political and economic. Neither of them alone can cause major problems, but together they may pull the country back in the general list of most popular destinations.

Thailand is again top tourist destination, surpassing Greece and Italy as the best tourist country for 2005. Despite the devastating tsunami of late 2004 Thailand is keeping this high honor for the third consecutive year. It seems the natural disasters cannot change the perception of this country as paradise on earth with excellent services and hospitable people. Thai authorities try to keep this perception intact by judging severely any local citizen found guilty in harassing foreigners. Personally I don't think the severity equals justice, and there are several examples coming from around the globe showing how these excessive efforts to please foreigners have turned into sense of humiliated national pride. We can only hope that they wouldn't produce any xenophobic backlash in Thailand.

Not in a desperate search for insignificant problems, but in order to fix those already existing and make the country a better place to live and visit, we must indicate that the ethnic and religious conflict in the very south of the country is far from over. The clashes still took human lives not so far away from popular international tourist destinations. The government may look as being in full control over the situation, but the tensions remain, and people are taken hostages. Leaving this problem unresolved makes some of the best regions of the country inaccessible for mass tourism. This is bad for the local economy, bad for the national economy and not great news for those in search for undiscovered locations.

On the real estate market the trends seem very promising. The liberalized financial market is a powerful engine for new developments, but we shouldn't underestimate the hidden drawbacks of such bold financial policy. Thailand and its real estate market were already seriously hit in late 1990s as a result of imprudent financial overexposures. Pumping fresh money into new developments may easily create false impression of never-ending positive price helix. The prices in Thailand may look moderate compared to North America or West Europe or Japan. For a country that still strives to become a middle-income nation, however, prices of $80,000-100,000 for simple detached bungalows and $500,000+ for luxury villas aren't moderate at all. They aim first and foremost wealthy foreigners; a market we all know is highly volatile.

Thailand country profile:

• Area: 514,000 sq km
• Population: 65.4 million (July 2005 est.)
• Population growth rate: 0.87% (2005 est.)
• Life expectancy at birth: 71.95 years
• Total fertility rate: 1.88 children born/woman (2005 est.)
• HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate: 1.5% (2003 est.)
• Ethnic groups: Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11%
• Religions: Buddhism 94.6%, Muslim 4.6%, Christianity 0.7%
• Languages: Thai, English (secondary language of the elite)
• GDP per capita: purchasing power parity $8,300 (2005 est.)
• Distribution of family income (Gini index): 51.1 (2002)
• Labor force by occupation: agriculture 49%, industry 14%, services 37% (2000 est.)
• Main trading partners: US, Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore.
• Internet users: 8.4 million (2005)

(Source: CIA World Factbook 2006, Reuters)

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Thailand.