I also was in Thailand when the airport was closed and during the red shirt "revolution." My own inconvenience was minor, but it seems a bit pointless to deny that there is a global perception that Thailand has been having problems that many tourists would rather avoid. Hundreds of thousands were "trapped" by the airport closing; taking the train to KL or Singapore or flying out of U Tapao was not a viable solution for the majority of those affected by BKK's shutdown. IMO it's a fairly serious indication that Thai tourism may be suffering when most of my friends, farang AND Thai, ask me why is there always trouble whenever I travel to Thailand.

The NY Times article obviously wasn't telling tourists to avoid Thailand ("Certainly, some recent deals make Thailand seem like the place to go"), but it wasn't sugarcoating the issue either. A great many foreign tourists have opted to travel elsewhere based on the events of the past year. Thailand tourism IS suffering because of the yellow shirt/red shirt mess, and as long as incidents like the airport closing or street riots keep popping up on a regular basis on the BBC World News and CNN, it will continue to suffer.