Tourism is one of the best “products” a country can produce. It’s almost all a service industry which doesn’t strain natural resources, doesn’t cause physical health issues for its employees, incentivizes a higher level of education, and brings in large amounts of foreign currencies, helping to stabilize their own currency. The positives FAR outweigh the negatives. Countries like Saudi Arabia have embraced tourism as a great way to diversify. A country like Thailand is able to “thrive” relative to its neighbors because it derives far more economic power from its tourist trade.(20% of GDP compared to Cambodia’s 9%, Malaysia’s 15% and Myanmar’s 3%)

whatever economic power it gets from tourism is used up on stuff like smartphones for the rich. Not food. Not resources. Their health clinic shelves were empty.

In effect, tourism just absorbs talented manpower. Thailand has a huge dearth of educated people doing world shattering stuff because so many went the tourist route. Sure it stops the other braindrain with ex-migration.