Unrest hits tourism in North and South

[pachangamac042]

I saw it coming, but how bad a high season may we have this year?

SARS, chicken flu, tsunami, coup d’etat, PAD, how much more can the tourism industry take?

[CrazyAhmadinejad]

I saw it coming, but how bad a high season may we have this year?

SARS, chicken flu, tsunami, coup d’etat, PAD, how much more can the tourism industry take?

It's probably of no interest to whoever wrote that, that the world economy is in the toilet and that no one has money to travel....


I'm CrazyAhmadinejad and I approve this message

[pachangamac042]

I do not agree, with you crazy. People safe money all year long for their holidays. I do not think that it is a question of whether you go on a holiday or not, but a question to where you go. I heard from former South East Asia tour operator colleagues, that bookings are slightly down compared to last year in general, but bookings for Thailand are heavily down. An the winner this year seems to be; BALI. I guess we will find out soon.

[Minnie]

I hear what you are saying Crazy but I also must agree with Pachan, yes the current economic state of affairs does not bode well and the earlier stumbling blocks were natural disasters.....but the Coup has taken FDI away from Thailand for almost 2 years..I quote from the FT
[b]From a peak of $9.2bn in 2006, foreign direct investment dropped to $6.1bn in 2007, reflecting the turmoil that accompanied massive anti-government protests and a September 2006 military coup. In the first six months of 2008, Thailand, south-east Asia's second largest economy and a hub of foreign manufacturing, received just $1.69bn in foreign investment inflows.[/b]

The SARS, Bird flue and Tsunami all happened pre 2006
From a peak of 9.2bn USD in 2006 to a very probable 3.5bn USD by the end of 2008..though its likely to be less, cause the last 6 months of 2008 are even harder than thr 1st 6 months...
You cannot ignore that political shennanigins created by Sonthi (who seems to be the only person and or business making money in this day and age...) have not had their effect...a very negative one....I am so angry with that group of Fascist people for basically dragging Thailand back 10 yrs

[DocN]

Said it before, say it again: I am working for the "tourism industry" and the PAD had nearly no influence WHATSOEVER on our bookings.
Oilprice, World economy and strong Baht.
But the PAD...no way!

[pachangamac042]

Sorry Doc, but I do think that the PAD has had an influence. As a former tour operator for South-East Asia myself, I still have many friends in the business, and they all had something in common, many stranded costumers in Bangkok and Phuket airport, the day some folks decided to close down Phuket airport. As a professional, you should know what problems that caused. And as professionals, all my colleagues are honest to say today, that they do NOT recommend Thailand as holiday destination, simply because nobody can know what will be tomorrow or after tomorrow. As a pro you do not gamble with the fate of your costumers. And yes, as I said, the bookings are down a bit in general, but heavily for Thailand. Aparently this year is going to Bali, then Vietnam and Cambodia.

[paulblueeyes]

Haveing just been in Thailand on holiday for 3 weeks,I think part of the problem is the cost. Once Thailand was a very cheap holiday,but no more hotels food travel all very expensive. I am not suprised people are staying away.I think Thailand will lose out to places like Vietnam Cambodia even India.I will still come but not so often. The unrest will not help, people go on holiday to relax, not to worry about being hurt ,also the exchange rate is bad so the tourist is hit again.
Thanks paulblueeyes

[DocN]

Sorry Doc, but I do think that the PAD has had an influence. As a former tour operator for South-East Asia myself, I still have many friends in the business, and they all had something in common, many stranded costumers in Bangkok and Phuket airport, the day some folks decided to close down Phuket airport. As a professional, you should know what problems that caused. And as professionals, all my colleagues are honest to say today, that they do NOT recommend Thailand as holiday destination, simply because nobody can know what will be tomorrow or after tomorrow. As a pro you do not gamble with the fate of your costumers. And yes, as I said, the bookings are down a bit in general, but heavily for Thailand. Aparently this year is going to Bali, then Vietnam and Cambodia.

Oh...man...that is all so wrong!
Our company had 1 (one!) cancellation from Germany...that is it!
I know that blocking an airport is a problem...but please...we are acting as if Thailand is the only country in the world , where this is happening.
Last February Frankfurt Airport was had hit by Lufthansa strike...did anyone bother?

If your friends don't recommend anyone coming to Thailand now, because nobody know waht tomorrow will bring...then THEY are the pronlem and not PAD!
I don't know what will be tomorrow...nobody knows.
But that is also true for the rest of the world.

I recommend anyone to come to Thailand and I think of myself as a pro.
Even IF we have another coup...will that really affect ANYONE on Phuket or in Pattaya? In Khao Lak or Samui? Even in Bangkok???

I am acting responsible, even more so, as nobody can say what will be tomorrow!

[Dean M]

I'm an expat who lives in Chiang Mai, and on my MySpace Website I state that while there is political turmoil occurring, mostly in Bangkok, that the north is relatively unaffected by it, and strongly encourage people to come to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and even Udon Thani.

While I admit that Thailand has some problems and issues that need to be addressed, find me any other country in the world that doesn't also have their own share of problems that makes them any different from Thailand?

1) The rich get better educations for their children - Been happening since before Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was a teacher.
2) All politicians are corrupt and only in it for the money - Been happening since human being banded together to form villages.
3) The police are corrupt - Show me a country where they aren't
4) The Education System is a sham - It's inline with about 95% of the rest of the world.
5) People murdered on the beaches - Happens every day on beaches around the world.
6) Dollar to Baht Exchange Rate is bad - Are you nuts???? I LOVE the exchange rate!!

Again, Thailand has it's problems, but as far as I'm concerned it it still one of the best places to visit, especially the northern provinces, and by far one of the best places to live. Instead of all of you "Negative Nanny's" complaining about "what's wrong" with Thailand, why don't you try commenting on "What's Good" with Thailand? Despite everything, I have come to love this country and love the people, and as I was known for saying back in America, if you don't like it here you have two choices: a) get involved to help make changes, b) go live someplace else and see how well you like it there.

[pachangamac042]

closing down airports, from a profesional point of view

I see that there are still people who think that everything is ok in Thailand. Well, I think that the situation is more like a time bomb, specially after yesterdays morning news.

I know that big time pro Doc will not agree with me, but still I would like to clarify, why that many of my touroperator friends do not recommend to travel to Thailand right now. Let us see, first there are some countries in the world, which issued travel warnings for trips to Thailand. That is something which should not be ignored. But worse was the closing down of airports, and are some reasons why;

A – There have been many tourists, arriving to Bangkok after a long 12 hours flight and expecting to take a connecting flight to Phuket, were they had their hotels reserved. No flights available because of the closing of Phuket airport. No luggage, because the luggage handling was a complete chaos. Checked through luggage has been messed up. So, it is midnight in Europe, early morning in Bangkok, tour operator phones are ringing with stranded people who needed help. Even TG and the local representatives were very helpful, there was not much they could do and some luggage showed up only 2 days later. New reservations had to be made in other hotels, mostly Bangkok, Pattaya and Hua Hin. Refund of the already reserved hotels. Refunds of transfers. Refund of flight tickets.

B – There have been many tourists in Phuket, which finished their 1 week stay in Phuket and were ready to join the 8 days North Thailand tour ex Bangkok. This guests had no way to be in BKK for the start of their tours and of course they had no longer a hotel reservation in Phuket. Again, new arangements had to be done. Flights rebooked. Talks with airline representatives regarding refunds. The whole Northern Thailand tours had to be resheduled, and so on.

C – Guests finishing their holidays on Phuket, Krabi or Khaolak and ready to go back home. That was aparently the worst part of it. People are booked on longhaul flights but they were stranded in Phuket with no way to go, but back to the hotels. To rebook all this guests was a mayor challenge and only possible with the fantastic support of involved airlines. Even so, some people got only home up to 4 days later than what they were sheduled. People missed days at work and other apointments they had, amongs many other things.

D – Busines people on duty, big time trouble. Many of them had important apointments for important businesses, very thight shedules and no time for extra, unplanned holidays. More losts.

There was much more to it than mentioned above, but I hope that people may get an idea what chaos the closing of a touristical important airport has caused. There was a huge additional workload for people involved, and of course, all of this extra work has been done for free as I do not see the PAD paying for demage done. Even worse was the demage done to the guests. Some of the complains must have been realy ugly even it was not the tour operators misstake misstake. But how do you explain such things to people who are just in for a good time or some work related business. Good luck that it happened before high season, imagine the airport closing would have been around X-mas time. Well, that would have been a real mess.

So please Doc and other optimists; can you guarantee that no more airports will be closed in the future? I do not think so, and that is why a serious tourism expert would not recommend trips to Thailand right now. Even if it is only to safe yourselve and your guests a lot of possible troubles in the future.