The Great Black & White Hope for Chiang Mai

Forget about Elephants, Buddhist temples and exotic Hill Tribes. The great hope for tourism in Chiang Mai, the "Rose of the North" and fountainhead of Thai culture, is a small, mouse-like baby panda of Chinese descent.

On May 27 Lin Hui, a female panda on loan to the Chiang Mai Zoo from China, gave birth to a tiny, rat-like pink female panda. It has since gained its distinctive black and white colours.

The birth was the result of artificial insemination, which the zoo had to resort to after Chuang Chuang, an 8-year-old male panda also on loan from China, refused to copulate with Lin Hui.

Chiang Mai Zoo vets at one point resorted to showing Chuang Chuang panda pornography, but to no avail.

Thailand is the only South-East Asia country to have been provided a panda pair from China. With Chiang Mai's tourism industry in a slump, the birth is being milked for all it is worth.

"The baby panda is Chiang Mai's big hope," Chiang Mai Zoo's assistant director Wanchai Tunwattana said.

The city is planning "welcome baby panda" parades on July 4-6, with marching bands from various Chiang Mai schools, and in mid-August will sponsor a special naming event for the little cub, to be held in Bangkok.

The cub, which is still kept in a nursing room with its mother, will be put on public display by October.

While Chiang Mai used to earn about 40 billion baht (1.16 billion dollars) from tourism five years ago, similar to amount then earned by Phuket and Pattaya beach resorts, last year the city's tourism revenues fell to less than 30 billion, compared with Phuket's 100 billion baht and Pattaya's 70 billion, Vorapong said.

In the first five months of 2009, arrivals have been down 20 per cent, he said. Hotels are operating at occupancy rates of less than 20 per cent.

Chiang Mai's great black-and-white hope now rests with a baby panda.

"This is our marketing tool to bring people back to Chiang Mai," Kanog said. "This might spark the mood for people to travel here."

Source: The Nation 28th June 2009