POLITICAL STANDOFF
Red shirts douse Songkran outlook
Industry bodies fear fallout from protests
- Published: 10/04/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Business
Thailand's tourism industry has once again been scuppered by political tension as local and foreign tourists reconsider or cancel trips, despite the upcoming Songkran holiday.
Bangkok was paralysed yesterday after red-shirted demonstrators blocked several key roads. Many nearby businesses were affected and congestion slowed traffic to a snail's pace.
As yet, no countries have upgraded their travel advisories. For instance, the Australian government, at 6:30 pm yesterday, maintained a high degree of caution for travelling to Thailand.
The Federation of Thai Tourism Associations (FTTA) has asked the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) to consider the country's economic needs.
"Thailand and the tourism industry have been hurt already by many negative factors, so Thai people should not aggravate the situation further," said Apichart Sankary, president of the Association of Thailand Travel Agents (ATTA), a member of the FTTA.
The FTTA now fears two major tourism events in the second half of the year, with a total of 27,000 delegates, will be cancelled if protests continue.
Mr Apichart said some meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (Mice) events had already been cancelled. He forecast more cancellations if protests turn violent. Japanese and Chinese tourists, in particular, are likely to cancel trips to Thailand.
The ATTA expects tourist arrivals from Scandinavia to plunge by over 20% if the situation continues into next month.
Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa yesterday promised to resign if the UDD seized the airports or a state of emergency were declared. But he is still confident these events will not happen again.
"If politics is still unstable, everything we - the government and the private sector - have tried to promote will be rubbish," he said.
"In the past, the government solved problems in the wrong way. The government should amend the constitution to give amnesty to all politicians who have been banned in 2007 and 2008. Some people were punished even if they were not guilty."
Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association, said he had received many calls from travel agents in China about the UDD rally.
"Although there are no cancellations right now, I can say that Thailand is losing an opportunity to grow in China. They are very concerned about the airports closing again. They said, 'Why don't Thai people think about their country's benefit?"' he asked.
Mr Sisdivachr said the country would lose over 10 billion baht from the Chinese market. Thailand has had about 100 group tours per month, but today the number was down to only 10.
Maiyarat Pheerayakoses, president of the Association of Domestic Travel (ADT), said domestic travel would be affected until the second half. "We will see more layoffs in travel agents. We have lost over 40% of our business since the middle of last year," she said.
Meanwhile, Tanit Sorat, chairman of the Logistics Club of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), said transport routes from the Eastern Seaboard to Bangkok and Suvarnabhumi Airport were still unblocked.
"As far as I know, the red-shirted protesters are flocking to Pattaya to interrupt the Asean+3 summit. But if they move to block the Motorway, that would be trouble for us as it is the national logistics link to Laem Chabang deep-sea port and to Rayong and Chanthaburi provinces," he said.
While the route is not yet interrupted, overseas buyers have started to ask whether the port may be blocked.
"We are worried that if this concern persists or worsens, our consumers will shift their orders to Vietnam or China instead," he said.
About the author
- Writer: CHADAMAS CHINMANEEVONG AND VICHAYA PITSUWAN
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