Thai Wine Association has expressed strong disagreement with the government's plan to ban alcohol sales during Buddhist holidays. Vice president Kim Wachtveitl said the measure would destroy the local wine industry as well as ecotourism, such as wine-tour packages organised by local wineries.

Kim, who is also director for business development at Siam Winery Trading Plus, said the Public Health Ministry was preparing legislation to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine and hard liquors, during Buddhist holidays. The authority will also order local wine producers to put labels with warning images showing accidents caused by drunk-driving on bottles. He said such measures would shock and confuse wine consumers, particularly foreign tourists.

The Thai Wine Association brings together seven major local wine producers, including Siam Winery, PB Valley (Khao Yai), GranMonte, Chateau de Brumes and Mae Chan Winery. They employ more than 1,500 people, and have a total production of about 1 million bottles annually. "Unlike hard liquor, wine should be treated as an agricultural product being created through a natural production process," Kim said. He characterised what the government intended to do as a "blanked solution".

"Most important, we think that the government should ensure that this social issue should be tackled intelligently. They should communicate with many concerned bodies, such as the Public Health Ministry, the Tourism and Sports Ministry and local associations that represent the private sector," he said. He added that the government should educate its people to drink responsibly. Similar to what has been done in the UK, adults should be informed of the units of alcohol they can safely drink each day to prevent drunk driving and other health-related concerns. "Our 'cellar-door' sales contribute between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of our wine business," Kim said, referring to selling wine directly from the wineries. He said the proposed ban would hit those sales hard.

In some countries and states, such as Australia and California, local governments have a strong policy to promote wine tourism as a mechanism to attract money into the country. There are currently about 80 million tourists coming into France every year to enjoy French wines in addition to other tourism attractions such as beaches, golf, shopping and culture.

"Thailand itself should promote wine tourism as a new innovative attraction to attract inbound tourists and to rebuild the country's image, which has been destroyed by local unrest and political problem," Kim said.

Prin Malakul, corporate affairs director of Thai Asia Pacific Brewery, local producer and distributor of Heineken beer, said that the company agrees with the government's measure to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages on Buddhist holidays. "In practice, we have been asked by the government and related authorities for cooperation to stop selling alcohol on the holidays. And I think this measure will be quite acceptable also for foreign travellers as well," he said.

Prin said that he however disagreed with the labelling measure. "After such labelling measure were applied to cigarettes, we have not seen any drop in their sales." Prin said that global studies show that alcohol does not have any health impact if people drink it appropriately.

The best solution is to provide the right education and understanding to consumers regarding the responsible and non-aggressive drinking of alcoholic beverages.