Chiang Rai tastes the future

This far north town is about to be invaded by a horde of commuter vans and tour buses, 27 August, as more than 1,700 secondary school teachers meet for the their annual conference. “We are going to see traffic jams,” warned Dusit Island Resort’s general manager, Mana Chanhorm, “Already hotels are filling up and we are expecting a full-house for the week beginning 27 August.” Visions of Ching Rai’s narrow streets overrun by fleets of Toyota Commuter vans may stretch the imagination of the town’s residents who take pride in their town’s laidback lifestyle and the province’s Lanna culture. Just 180 km down the road is Chiang Mai, fast becoming a mirror of Bangkok with pollution, traffic jams, massive shopping malls and a profusion of urban entertainment. In contrast, Chiang Rai tags itself “City of Artists”, noting that many of the country’s top artists settled here to get away from the hurly burly of the Thai capital and other commercially driven provincial towns. But the arrival of 1,700 school teachers for their annual gig is an indicator that Chiang Rai is embracing change. Mr Mana says positive changes were evident earlier this year as more government related meetings headed to Chiang Rai, boosting the economy after a commercial drought of more than two years. “We have gone through two very slow years, but there has been a positive turn in the local economy this year, especially for the hotel business that is improving mainly driven by domestic events and leisure travel.” When the 1,700 school teachers file into the Mae Fah Luang University convention hall for their week-long meeting, Mr Mana estimates there will be another 1,000 to 1,300 family members enjoying the province’s attractions. “The teachers will bring along their families and I estimate we could have as many as 4,000 domestic tourists in town through to the end of the month.” Most of the teachers will stay in budget or midscale hotels, but even the up-market properties like the Dusit Thani with its off-peak rate of around Bt2,400 a night will fill up. “You can stay three nights in a five-star hotel in Chiang Rai for the cost of a single night on Samui island,” Mr Mana explains with some regret. ‘We should be getting a much higher rate for the product we offer.” Dusit Island Resort was the first five-star hotel to open in Chiang Rai on a prime riverside site. Despite its years, the property remains in good shape having carved out a respectable events related business and undergone various renovations. Earlier this year, it hosted the two-day Mekong Tourism Forum and rarely a day goes by without a government seminar on site usually related to development plans for the province or the northern region. If there are positive indicators that Chiang Rai is approaching commercial take off, one would be the increase in land prices driven by Bangkok resident who seek a second home or a retreat from future flood threats. Another indicator is the arrival of the urban shopping mall, Central Plaza, sporting all the brand names that dominate the shopping scene of the capital and most major commercial towns. A provincial official tells me that the railway engine and rolling stock parked on a track to nowhere in front of the town’s museum hints of the future. “There is no doubt in my mind,” the official explains, “Chiang Rai will have a rail service a spur from Den Chai junction on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai line.” That has been a dream since the late 19th century when railway officials turned the track towards Chiang Mai and relegated the planned spur to Chiang Rai to a pending file for future consideration. However a road bridge over the Mekong River at Chiang Khong is a reality. It is under construction and should open for traffic by next year. It will link with a highway at Huay Xai on the Lao side of the river that heads north to Luang Namtha and the border with China. Certainly it will trigger more land speculation near highway routes to the bridge. Highways will need to be widened or new ones built to link the road from China and Laos to Chiang Rai town and south to Phan and Phayao  where they will  merge with highway 1 and 103 to Lampang or Phitsanulok. Bangkok lies 780 km south of Chiang Rai province an overnight trip for truckers and buses from the Mekong River border. Today, the area around Chiang Khong all the way to Phaya Mengrai offers stunning vistas of forested mountains, villages and winding country lanes, the perfect haunts for the region’s mountain bikers. Yet trade and transport especially cargo will initially boom, rather than tourism, once the highways and bridges are in place. Fleets of 18-wheel trucks will transport goods from China’s Yunnan province to markets in Thailand in addition to the cargo brought downstream on the Mekong River to the port at Chiang Saen. Already there is a scheduled bus service from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang in Laos that follows the route to Chiang Khong and crosses the river to Huay Xai on a car ferry to continue the 400 km journey to Laos’ premier tourist town. This flurry of activity in Chiang Rai will generate more seminars mainly driven be government departments, but domestic tourism will flourish, too, on the back of low-cost airline flights and the hourly tour bus services that depart the northern gateway Chiang Mai for the three-hour trip to Chiang Rai town. Chiang Rai’s Mae Fah Luang International Airport should also be a driver to boost tourism, but the sleepy airport is still largely overlooked by regional airlines. Its international status is propped up by a three weekly China Southern flight from Kunming in Yunnan province. Talk of gateways to the Mekong, bridges, railways and four-lane highways linking China’s road network to Thailand has not rubbed off on airline planners, who are remarkably slow to see the enormous commercial potential that lies just over the horizon for Chiang Rai. If all goes well, Chiang Rai could become the region’s “slow tourism” destination noted for quality hotels, spas, outdoor sports and some remarkably fine restaurants hidden away on hillside plantations or wineries. It will take just one far-sighted regional airline to change the province’s fortunes in tourism. Initially, the sums will not add up requiring the kind of long-term vision that Thai International once had when it pioneered the first flights to Kathmandu and Bali from  its Southeast Asian gateway in the 1970s. Airlines probably lack that kind of vision today or the resolve to weather the initial lean revenue months, but if a regional airline made a commitment to Chiang Rai’s tourism it would ultimately pay off in vast dividends. Without nonstop services from Hong Kong and Singapore, Chiang Rai loses out on a lucrative market of travellers who seek what experts like to call “experiential travel”. They are busy young executives living in urban ASEAN and they crave for a holiday that will change the pace, relieve stress. But they need easy convenient access, fast without a change of planes. That is why it is crucial for a destination like Chiang Rai to win over the airlines before winning the hearts of travellers. Chiang Rai has the magic of culture and natural beauty to attract ASEAN-based travellers who want to chill out. They have been heading to Bali a top destination for beaches, culture, art and stunning mountain scenery on nonstop flights from their home cities throughout the region. Chiang Rai’s travel industry has to pursue the same goals and it starts with airline partnership. One day tourism will take over the streets of Chiang Rai just as it did in Chiang Mai. It is really up to provincial authorities to recognise the opportunities and also the threats. By doing so they will be able to manage progress in a manner that respects culture and lifestyle. The province’s leaders and travel executives need to stay true to a commitment to preserve northern culture at all costs and learn from mistakes made elsewhere. Then it might be possible to embrace a brand of tourism that fits the province’s distinct environment. To stray from that resolve will court disaster and there are plenty of examples to illustrate the scenario that could engulf Chiang Rai’s tourism if commercial gain is the only benchmark. From ttrweekly