Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments.
Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds for ecological conservation, to directly benefit the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, or to foster respect for different cultures and for human rights. Since the 1980s, ecotourism has been considered a critical endeavor by environmentalists, so that future generations may experience destinations relatively untouched by human intervention. Several university programs use this description as the working definition of ecotourism.
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth; these access the sea via rivers or canals. Because of their roles as ports of entry for immigrants as well as soldiers in wartime, many port cities have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes throughout their respective histories.
The Chao Phraya is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand.
Sustainable tourism is tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts while addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities. Tourism can be related to travel for leisure, business and visiting friends and relatives and can also include means of transportation related to tourism. This might be transportation to the general location as well as local transportation to and from accommodations, entertainment, recreation, nourishment and shopping. There is now broad consensus that tourism should be sustainable. In fact, all forms of tourism have the potential to be sustainable if planned, developed and managed properly.
The Chao Phraya freshwater swamp forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in Thailand. It occupies the lowlands of the Chao Phraya River watershed in central Thailand. The ecoregion was once home to extensive swamp forests and wetlands. The ecoregion has mostly been converted to agriculture and cities, and very little natural forest remains. The ecoregion's rice paddies and waterways still sustain some wildlife.
Nautical tourism, also called water tourism, is tourism that combines sailing and boating with vacation and holiday activities. It can be travelling from port to port in a cruise ship, or joining boat-centered events such as regattas or landing a small boat for lunch or other day recreation at specially prepared day boat-landings. It is a form of tourism that is generally more popular in the summertime.
The Chao Phraya Express Boat is a transportation service in Thailand operating on the Chao Phraya River. It provides riverine express transportation between stops in the capital city of Bangkok and to Nonthaburi, the province immediately to the north. Established in 1971, the Chao Phraya Express Boat Company serves both local commuters and tourists. It also offers special tourist boats and a weekend river boat tours, as well as offering boats available for charter. Along with BTS Skytrain and Bangkok MRT, using the boats allows commuters to avoid traffic jams during the peak hours on weekdays.
In statistics, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a data analysis based on set theory to examine the relationship of conditions to outcome. QCA describes the relationship in terms of necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. The technique was originally developed by Charles Ragin in 1987 to study data sets that are too small for linear regression analysis but large for cross-case analysis.
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is one of the world's top tourist destination cities. Each year approximately 22.7 million international visitors arrive in Bangkok. MasterCard ranked Bangkok as the global top destination city by international visitor arrivals in its Global Destination Cities Index, with 15.98 million projected visitors in 2013. It has topped the MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index as the most visited city in the world in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The city is ranked fourth in cross-border spending, with 14.3 billion dollars projected for 2013, after New York, London and Paris. Euromonitor International ranked Bangkok sixth in its Top City Destinations Ranking for 2011. Bangkok has also been named "World's Best City" by Travel + Leisure magazine's survey of its readers for four consecutive years since 2010.
Saphan Taksin station is a BTS skytrain station, on the Silom Line in Sathon District, Bangkok, Thailand. The station is located at the entry ramp of Taksin Bridge, below Sathon Road, to the east of the Chao Phraya River. It is the only rapid transit station in Bangkok which can transfer to a river pier for the crossing-river ferry to Thonburi and the Chao Phraya Express Boat service. That makes the station popular for both daily passengers and tourists sightseeing by river boats to historical area such as Wat Arun, Wat Pho and Sanam Luang.
A tour boat is a boat used, and frequently purpose-built or adapted, for boat tours, a type of tourism frequently offered in much visited towns and cities of historic interest, that have canals or a river running through it, or that lie on a coast or a lake.
Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand. The flooding began at the end of July triggered by the landfall of Tropical Storm Nock-ten. These floods soon spread through the provinces of northern, northeastern, and central Thailand along the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins. In October floodwaters reached the mouth of the Chao Phraya and inundated parts of the capital city of Bangkok. Flooding persisted in some areas until mid-January 2012, and resulted in a total of 815 deaths and 13.6 million people affected. Sixty-five of Thailand's 76 provinces were declared flood disaster zones, and over 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of farmland was damaged. The disaster has been described as "the worst flooding yet in terms of...water and people affected."
Tourism brings both positive and negative impacts on tourist destinations. The traditionally-described domains of tourism impacts are economic, socio-cultural, and environmental dimensions. The economic effects of tourism include improved tax revenue and personal income, increased standards of living, and more employment opportunities. Sociocultural impacts are associated with interactions between people with differing cultural backgrounds, attitudes and behaviors, and relationships to material goods. Environmental impacts affect the carrying capacity of the area, vegetation, air quality, bodies of water, the water table, wildlife, and natural phenomena.
Overtourism is the perceived congestion or overcrowding from an excess of tourists, resulting in conflicts with locals. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines overtourism as "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality of visitor experiences in a negative way". This definition shows how overtourism can be observed both among locals, who view tourism as a disruptive factor that increasingly burdens daily life, as well as visitors, who may regard high numbers of tourists as a nuisance.
Khlong Bangkok Yai is a historic khlong of Bangkok. Originally it was part of the Chao Phraya River. In the past, the course of the Chao Phraya was longer than in the present. Those who travel by boat must cruise along the river, which took more than one day, until the reign of King Chairachathirat (1534–46) of the Ayutthaya Kingdom who ordered the construction of a canal bypassing a loop of the Chao Phraya River, known as Khlong Lat Bangkok, thus reducing travel times and changing the course of the Chao Phraya, which now flows along the new canal. The old course became what is known today as Khlong Bangkok Yai and Khlong Bangkok Noi.
Khlong Maha Sawat, also known as Khlong Chaiyaphruek (คลองชัยพฤกษ์), is a khlong (canal) in Thailand. It is a man-made waterway dug in 1859–1860 in the reign of King Rama IV. Today it is listed by the Fine Arts Department as a national heritage site. It starts from Khlong Lat Bang Kruai near Wat Chaiyaphrueksamala, flows along the border of Nonthaburi's Bang Kruai with Taling Chan and Thawi Watthana of suburban Bangkok, then flows through Phutthamonthon to meet the Tha Chin River at Ngio Rai Subdistrict in Nakhon Pathom's Nakhon Chai Si District. Its length is 28 km.
Nonthaburi Pier or Nonthaburi Pier , with designated pier number N30, is a pier on Chao Phraya River located in the Tambon Suan Yai, Amphoe Mueang Nonthaburi, Nonthaburi Province, Thailand, considered as another main pier of Nonthaburi, apart from Pak Kret Pier.
Khlong Om Non is a khlong (canal) in Nonthaburi Province, a part of Greater Bangkok.
Bang Rak is a khwaeng (subdistrict) and historic neighbourhood in Bangkok's Bang Rak District. It lies between the Chao Phraya River and Charoen Krung Road, and was home to communities of European expatriates who settled in the area mostly during the second half of the 19th century as Siam opened up to the West. Among them were the Portuguese, French and British, whose embassies occupied extensive grounds in the area, Danes who founded shipping companies as well as the historic Oriental Hotel, and Catholic missionaries who established some of the first schools in the country on the grounds surrounding Assumption Cathedral.
