Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand announces tourism development plans

In Bangkok on Sunday, a grenade explosion in front of the Big C Rajdamri Supercentre killed one person and injured at least 10. Early morning on July 30, another bomb explosion in Phaya Thai district's Soi Rangnam hospitalized one man. With the red shirt protests causing havoc in previous weeks too, many have been puzzled by Travel + Leisure magazine's celebration of Bangkok as the "World's Best City". Chiang Mai came second, and these two Thai cities are the only Asian cities in the travel magazine’s top 10 list voted by almost 16,000 readers. 

Timing partly explains the result. Polling for the World’s Best City ended on March 31, just a few days before the 10-week-long red shirt protests that closed down the Rajaprasong intersection and put the country into a state of emergency. Matt Leppard, editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, also explains that the criteria for choosing the best city had little to do with “livability”. Respondents were asked to rate cities’ sights, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping, and value. 

In a display of good timing this time, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra recently announced plans to develop tourism in Yaowarat and Rajaprasong, where Sunday’s explosion took place.

"What we have in our hands is very precious,” said Sukhumbhand. “We must prevent troubles and any more losses from happening in our beloved city. We should not damage it any further.” 

The development of tourist attractions and events in the two areas are among initiatives on the agenda. Other projects include the addition of more parks, flood prevention, and the installation of 30,000 CCTV cameras by 2013.

During his New York visit last week to receive the magazine's award, Sukhumbhand said, "Bad things happened, but we must move forward. We can't stop. We must keep up the morale."

It's not the first time that Travel + Leisure Magazine has proclaimed Bangkok as one of the world's best cities. Last year, it came in third place and in 2008 it was voted number one as well. Read 50 reasons why we think Bangkok is the world's greatest city. 

To learn more about Travel + Leisure's best awards this year, visit www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/.