La main-d’œuvre touristique face à la crise de la Covid-19 à Chiang Mai : des mobilités professionnelles sous contrainte

Pongsa KANTASORN
IRASEC, Bangkok
May 2026, 26 p.
 French Text

 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought international tourism in Thailand to a standstill, leading to business closures, unemployment, and significant income losses for workers in the sector. Based on a qualitative survey conducted in Chiang Mai—based on 101 interviews between July 2021 and February 2022—this research examines the strategies adopted by the tourism workforce in response to the crisis. Findings reveal that public assistance, which was limited and sometimes discriminatory, proved insufficient, pushing workers to develop individual survival strategies, including professional and geographical mobility into other sectors. These forced transitions raise issues of resource access, living conditions, and well-being, while also resulting in a loss of skills for the local tourism sector. The study thus sheds light on recent transformations in the tourism industry and the challenges posed by future crises.

 

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Pongsa KANTASORN began his career as a French teacher specializing in tourism, while also gaining practical experience as a tour guide. He later collaborated with a French NGO dedicated to improving the living conditions of underprivileged children and youth in Southeast Asia. This experience inspired him to pursue university studies on the impact of migration in Southeast Asia, particularly in relation to the tourism sector. Pongsa Kantasorn holds two master’s degrees—one in French language and the other in tourism development—both obtained in France. He is currently a PhD candidate at Paul-Valéry University Montpellier 3, within the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning, where his thesis examines “COVID-19 as a Revelator of Dysfunctions in Tourism Structuring : Precariousness and the Search for a Crisis Exit Trajectory for Thailand’s Tourism Workforce in the Era of Sustainable Tourism” (« La Covid-19 comme révélateur de dysfonctionnement dans la structuration du tourisme : la précarité et la recherche d’une trajectoire de sortie de crise de la main-d’œuvre touristique en Thaïlande dans l’ère du tourisme durable »).