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            The creative economy may charm Thai people into thinking that this new form of economic system will bring wealth and joy to them. Working and relaxing will never be separated. People across the world will be happy with a smile on their faces.

            Sadly, if every country produces only creative products, there is not enough purchasing power to go round. Eventually, some creative products, some companies or some countries will not be able to survive. Meanwhile, today’s winners must work their fingers to the bones on the creative products to maintain their market shares.

            For Thailand to survive and be happy in the creative economy, it is necessary to devise a wise strategy – that is to use the “Thai identity”, which is hard to copy, as a source for creative output to create value and generate satisfaction for customers across the world.

            “A smile” is a Thai identity that has generated great economic value for Thailand for many years, especially in the service and tourism sectors. It can also be used in relation to other industries from movies to food.

 

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            To compete in order to develop the creative economy, Thai people need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. We have long been influenced by western countries to think that Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is superior to Emotional Quotient (EQ). This is why we keep losing the economic competitions. Therefore, in developing Thailand’s creative economy, we should not follow the west whose strengths are logical creativity; we must exploit our emotional creativity to the fullest.

            In the case of the movie industry which is a branch of the creative economy, at first glance it appeared that the emotional creativity is the main elementas emotions need to be filled in the story to stimulate feelings in the audience. But in the end, dialogues of characters in the story come from screenwriters who need logical intelligence to create dialogues in a brief and systematical way. From this perspective, it is obvious why Thai screenwriters can never produce superior work to their western colleagues.

            On the contrary, the tourism sector is more open as it is not limited to a story that goes on the screen. It provides opportunities for tourists to experience local lifestyles and interact with different people. EQ and humanity certainly help generate tourist satisfaction far better than logical intelligence. This is why tourism has been the key industry in Thailand for many years. 

            However, the Thai tourism may not use the Thai strengths in EQ to generate great deal of value for the economy. It focuses on providing convenience and beauty of nature without being aware that Thai people cannot compete in this aspect with westerners whose science & technology knowledge is far superior.

            There is a shift in the world tourism industry from cultural tourism to creative tourism where tourists have opportunities to interact with the people and places rather than just viewing the scene and admire only what is provided for them. This is a big opportunity for the Thais to adjust themselves to the creative tourism, rather than sticking with the traditional way, to compete for the top position in this new sector. This can be done by optimizing EQ, which is the Thais’ asset..

            In the war of creative economy, it is not enough to compete for creative customers. In order to produce and consume creative products with taste, we have to compete for creative talent across the world who will form a creative class in the society. Ultimately, creativity of people in each country has a limit while machines cannot generate creativity. Therefore, countries that can attract highest number of quality creative class will be winners in the creative economy.

            Thailand lacks the capital and cutting-edge technology necessary to attract the creative class around the globe. The only strength that Thailand can use to attract these people is the smile and EQ that will impress talent from all over the world and convince them to give up enormous returns for a chance to work with Thai people who are happy and have colorful work culture.

            Luckily, most of the creative class meet success at young age, thanks to their amazing talent. Financial rewards are therefore not their ultimate goal. Pleasant working environment and fun, imaginative colleagues are definitely two elements that would persuade the creative class to relocate to Thailand, the land of smile.

            Creative tourism, which allows tourists from all over the world to experience the culture and identity of Thailand through smile and laughter, may be our best bet to attract the creative class. At first, they may be just tourists. Once they are fascinated by the Thai way of life, it is then easy to convince them to relocate and join Thai people in developing the creative economy. The creative class composed of multinational group of people offer different skills. Some may fulfill the talent gap for Thailand such as food preserving and value-adding technology in the food industry, or screenwriting techniques in the movie industry – both industries are moving towards the creative economy in full swing.

            Hollywood movies are backed by America, which is the world leader. Korean movies are supported by intense research aimed to fascinate global viewers with different cultural backgrounds. Chinese movies come from thousands of years of amazing history and civilization. Thailand barely has a chance to compete in this industry without an amazing strategy.

            One of the interesting strategies is to apply creative tourism in the movie industry. It should start with attracting tourists and the creative class to deeply experience the Thai way of life. After these foreigners are enamored of the Thai way, they will be key figures in disseminating the Thai culture to their fellow countrymen and spark their interest in Thai movies.

            Even so, amidst fierce competition in global tourism, it would not be easy for Thai people to attract creative tourists and creative class with only “smile and happiness”.  Thai people need to develop their language skills by learning different languages to serve customers and talent from different countries around the world. Still, do not forget about the Thais’ strengths i.e. EQ and the ability to improvise. If the shift from confining travelers to just seeing to giving them the freedom to interact with Thai lifestyles take place, I believe that the Thai smile and charms will be developed and will add economic value to the country indefinitely. 

            One thing should be noted about the concept of “home stay”. Even though it allows tourists to closely experience the beauty of the Thai way, its main weakness is that it does not provide a chance for tourists to participate in the culture, leaving them with a passive role of just watching the local way of life. The key to creative tourism is to allow tourists to actively participate in the local culture. Besides creating the dynamic in the local setting, it enables tourists to create their own experience of finding identity with the backdrop of the local people and culture as the story. This is the ultimate experience that will last forever in their minds.   

            The “smile and generosity” of the rural Thais have long been seen as obstacles to economic growth as they lead to a lack of wit to search for wealth and profits. However in the 21^st century, globalization has led us to the creative economy era during which creative consumers and class are longing for emotional fulfillment instead of soulless material rewards. Therefore, if applied properly, the generosity of all Thais will become the key force in pushing forward with the creative economy.

Translated by Siritharin Chareonsiri

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