Doing business in Thailand? Please ignore the burning bus.

But there’s a less tangible price, business leaders say, extracted each time CNN beams out footage of wild clashes in Thailand’s capital. The unrest confuses and generally freaks out foreign investors — at a time when Thailand needs them more than ever.

When it comes to ease of doing business, Thailand is actually growing more competitive, said Judy Benn, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand.

“But this has really been overlooked by foreign investors. All they see are burning buses, OK? And riots in the street,” she said. “How do investors tell their boards back in New Jersey, Ohio or Texas that Thailand is a safe place to do business?”

Thailand remains mired in a political crisis fractured along class and regional lines. The past year’s tit-for-tat protests in Bangkok — waged by pro-establishment crowds wearing canary yellow or anti-government crowds in fire-truck red — have produced must-see visuals for international TV crews.

That’s very hard to convey to American businesses, Benn said. “This just doesn’t happen in America. You don’t have groups taking over the White House and camping out.”

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