A grand vision to lure tourists with the allure of James Bond has turned into a spectacular embarrassment, after a 40-million-baht museum in Phang Nga collapsed into decay barely 24 hours after opening.
The so-called James Bond Museum, built to celebrate the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun, closed its doors on its very first day and has never reopened. A year later, it stands as a crumbling monument to bureaucratic vanity and wasted taxpayer money.
“This was never a real plan. It was just a flashy idea with no follow-through,” said People’s Party MP Phakamon Nunan during a scathing parliamentary inspection this week. “There has to be accountability. We can’t just pour millions into vanity projects and walk away.”
The Department of Tourism funded the facility, which was built on state land in the hope of tapping into the enduring fame of James Bond Island. But the project never had a proper operating budget, staff, marketing, or even a clear plan for who would run it once construction was finished.
Locals say they were never consulted about the idea. When Phakamon and other committee members visited on Monday, June 30, they found broken displays, peeling paint, and vegetation reclaiming the building. Inside, it was even worse, cheap cardboard cut-outs, imitation props, and no authentic memorabilia whatsoever.
“It was all surface,” Phakamon said. “No real substance. Just a hollow concept dressed up to impress.”
The fiasco highlights chronic problems with top-down planning in Thailand. While the Department of Tourism paid for construction, no funds were set aside for maintenance or staff. No one reached out to tour companies or promoted the museum to visitors already flocking to nearby islands.
After the ribbon was cut, responsibility for the site was tossed between government agencies like a hot potato. The Treasury Department tried to lease the building to local authorities for 100,000 baht a year, but municipal officials refused, saying the project was doomed to fail, reported Thai Examiner.
Phakamon pledged to push for change and demanded a new plan that starts with local involvement. “It’s not enough to build,” she said. “You have to maintain, operate and adapt. Otherwise, you’re just wasting taxpayer money.”
Today, the James Bond Museum stands silent, its cracked walls and fading signs a symbol of a system that builds but never sustains—and of the dreams that vanish when no one cares to follow through.
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