Tourism operators in Rayong have called for buffer zones to clearly separate industrial areas from tourism areas as the chemical warehouse explosion in the province this week could have a negative impact similar to two previous oil leaks.
Chemical fires broke out in an industrial waste warehouse owned by Win Process in Rayong's Ban Khai district on Monday and took more than 24 hours to get under control.
Suwanna Doty, president of the Tourism Council of Rayong, said accidents related to chemical leaks have occurred many times in Rayong, but the province still has not learned its lesson from previous incidents.
"We would like the government to create buffer zones to separate industrial areas from local and tourism areas," she said.
"The province should also prepare equipment and plans to immediately deal with emergencies, because in previous incidents we had to wait too long to stop damage from industrial accidents, such as oil spills that severely destroyed sea resources."
Mrs Suwanna said the explosion this week might not immediately impact tourism sentiment, as many tourists recently finished their late Songkran celebration, known as Wan Lai water festival, this past weekend.
However, if the responsible entities, including the plant owner and the government, do not take immediate action to handle negative outcomes, particularly related to health issues, she said it could severely affect the province, as happened during oil spills in 2022 from a pipeline of Star Petroleum Refining and in 2013 from a pipeline of PTT Global Chemical.
Mrs Suwanna said the average hotel occupancy rate this week dropped to 50-60% from the level before the explosion. As the fruit season approaches, visitors often want to visit durian farms in Rayong, and this latest incident might discourage visitors to the province, she said.
Provincial authorities should accelerate a health protection plan for locals in affected areas and prepare public announcements regarding the consequences, as not every part in Rayong was affected by the fires, said Mrs Suwanna.
Many tourism destinations are located more than 100 kilometres away from the warehouse, she said.
"We already saw many expatriates and long-term visitors in Chiang Mai relocated to Rayong because of hazardous levels of smog. We might experience the same exodus if we do not learn from previous accidents," said Mrs Suwanna.
