Bangkok Post, Thailand, Travel Column.

Byline: Imtiaz Muqbil

Dec. 2--Last week's bombings in the Kenyan beach resort of Mombassa pose a grave danger to the future of the global tourism industry, and more specifically to that of Thailand.

While international intelligence and security officials admit that the soft and vulnerable tourism industry has now become a target worldwide, Thai industry executives note that Israel is the country's largest and fastest growing source of arrivals from the Middle East.

Recalling the Dec 28, 1972 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok and another abortive attempt on March 11, 1994, a senior tourism executive said he was mighty worried about the possibility of another attack, this time targeting tourists. "I think we've got a serious problem on our hands," he said, declining to be identified.

In recent years, Israelis have been flocking in droves to Bangkok, Singapore and Manila, where they don't require visas. In 2001, Israeli visitors to Thailand totalled 91,253, up 24 percent over 2000, the third fastest growth rate of all markets, after Vietnam and Cambodia.

This growth continued in January to June 2002, when Israeli visitors to Thailand totalled 44,846, an increase of 12.83 percent over the same period of 2001. Israelis now comprise about 40 percent of all visitor arrivals from the Middle East.

Said the executive: "An attack on Israelis could have the same effect that the murders of Saudi diplomats and businessmen (in Bangkok in 1989 and 1990), and the (1989) jewellery theft case, had on Saudi visitor arrivals."