In his first Global Post piece, Curtis S. Chin, Managing Director with advisory firm RiverPeak Group, LLC, focuses on Asian inequality. He looks at the critically unequal access to essential infrastructure, education and opportunity facing Asia today, and how these inequalities are being masked by glitzy tourism campaigns.

According to the Asian Development Bank, an estimated 1.7 billion people struggle to live on less than two dollars a day. Yet pretty pictures and carefully staged commercials draw tourists to countries like Thailand, now ranked as the 12th most unequal place in the world, and obscure the reality of what is really happening on the ground.

Curtis writes that “investment in national or city “branding” campaigns must also do more to benefit a broader array of communities and citizens than the few local, vested interests—more than simply padding the bottom line of a handful of hospitality conglomerates.”

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