Last Friday night's deadly attacks in Paris have worsened worries about terrorism, making it a major challenge for tourism in the long term, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
The Baiyoke Tower II in Bangkok is lit up with the words "Pray for Paris" together with the French and Thai flags in commemoration of last Friday night's terrorist attacks. Terrorism may become a major factor for local and foreign tourists in selecting holiday destinations. PATTARAPONG CHATPATTARASILL
"The immediate impact of the attacks is likely to be short term, as people may panic and want to wait and see if the situation really is under control," TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said.
What is certain, however, is that terrorism is set to become a major factor for local and foreign tourists in selecting holiday destinations.
"They will take the safety measures for tourists in each country seriously into consideration, especially tourists who plan to travel to Europe," Mr Yuthasak said.
He said it was still too early to assess the effects of the Paris attacks solely in numbers.
Minkwan Metmowlee, owner of Image D'Asie, Thailand's top inbound travel agent for France, said tour agents focusing on the European market were expected to feel the pinch from the attacks in next year's first quarter.
"The short term is not a problem, as most clients have paid fully for their travel bookings, but those who are only in the process of planning their trips means it's highly likely we'll see a drop in tourist figures, especially in the first quarter, as they are not in the mood to travel after this massive tragedy," said Ms Minkwan, who is also vice-president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
Moreover, she said concerns about terrorism would spread across the euro zone, clouding the tourism sentiment in the short term, with sentiment not improving until next October.
Ms Minkwan suggests the Thai government beef up safety measures as much as possible to ensure tourists' confidence.
Asian countries including Thailand will become more attractive to travellers, as apart from Europe, other long-haul destinations such as the US are also at risk of terrorist attacks, she said.
"The government should consider a plan to serve the higher number of tourist arrivals," Ms Minkwan said.
Krichanat Meesumran, managing director of Sun Smile Holiday & Travel Co, a large outbound wholesale travel agent, said there had been no cancellations so far.
However, there have been many calls from booked clients, as France is one of the most popular destinations for Thai travellers.
"From September until now, we've sold trips to France to 20 groups of 30 persons each and still have four groups left or about 120 travellers to France who will travel this month," Mr Krichanat said.
The company has prepared new routes for clients wanting to change their plans from France, but they may need to pay additional costs, plus new visa applications may also be required.
"Next month will be better, I believe. The French government is keeping all tourism sites open as usual," Mr Krichanat said.
This year the TAT estimates the total number of tourists from France will grow by 4% from last year to 628,000, generating 43.5 billion baht in total revenue or a 6% rise in value.
For 2016, the TAT expects the number of French tourist arrivals will rise slightly to 659,000, generating 48.2 billion baht in revenue.
Mr Yuthasak said: "Personally, over the past few days I've seen different reactions throughout the world to terrorism. It seems people are not really that scared but rather are refusing to surrender to the threat of terrorism."
It is pretty much business as usual for airlines operating through Thailand in the aftermath of the Paris attacks as industry chiefs downplay the effect, if any, on the country's tourism.
Flights from Europe have been operating as normal with no cancellations, wile air travel sentiment appears to be intact so far, they said.
"I don't think this kind of incident will affect the traffic flows, and I believe they [foreign tourists] will still come here for a holiday," Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, said yesterday.
What will affect the traffic is economic factors, while any fallout from Paris will be quite short term, he added.