Thailand's billboard disaster
Come to hailand! That’s the message visitors driving to and from Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi airport are seeing. About half a dozen of the enormous billboards advertising products and welcoming people to Thailand’s cluster-f*ck airport have collapsed in storms, all else just fallen over of their own accord, leaving the scenery looking chaotic.
I’m unsure when these billboards fell down because I didn’t read about it in the news. What I did read about were numerous billboards toppling over in Bangkok in and around Sukhumvit Road.
Twenty-eight billboards in Bangkok were blacklisted after one fell down on June 27 and killed a woman. Two that fell down at the end of July were not among the blacklisted, and I doubt that the billboard behemoths at Suvarnabhumi were blacklisted either.
Thailand’s new airport looks like a mess. There were no signs of restoration work being done on the fallen billboards, and there probably won’t be for some time to come.
So what’s the verdict? Shoddy workmanship? Stronger-than-usual storms? Likely a combination of the two.
In a report on the Thai News website, Prime Minister Surayud was already a step ahead mid-June.
Prime Minister Surayud Chualnont instructed the Ministry of Interior to resolve the problem of excessive billboards along the roads leading to the Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The premier said during a Cabinet meeting yesterday (June, 19th) that that 60 billboards posted near the airport have been too distracting and asked the Interior Ministry to find measures to deal with them.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Finance Sommai Phasi said the billboards might cause trouble to commuters. He suggested the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to take care of the matter and consider raising taxes for the billboards.
Is anybody going to clean them up?
Techno' tags: Thailand, Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi
I don't know why they haven't been cleaned up, but I do know they generate lots of tax revenue for the Government. It can cost upwards of three million baht per month for one of those big billboards on the road to the airport, and there is a six month waiting list for those in prime positions. I think it's unlikely they'll be disappearing anytime soon.
I admit that I find the idea of "Come to (T)hailand" to be amusing.. considering the sign is in Thailand. The billboards are an eyesore but as Andrew said, they're not likely to go away.
Too bad really.
Peace,
~Chani
http://thailandgal.blogspot.com