The current civil unrest in Bangkok will affect the influx of Chinese tourists to Thailand only in the short term, a tour company owner said on Sunday.
Wichit Korbkosol, president of CCT Group, a major tour agency, said tour operators had no choice but to accept the consequences of Sunday’s clashes between police and anti-government protesters in which tear gas and water cannon were fired. He was referring to the likelihood of the Chinese government increasing its travel warning level to Thailand.
However, he said the unrest in the capital would likely affect the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand only in the next one or two months, and so far there had been no cases of them leaving Thailand earlier than their original schedules.
Tour companies were handling the situation by changing their Bangkok sightseeing tours such as visits to the Grand Palace and the city’s major shopping centres to Pattaya, old capital of Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi instead, he added.
Meanwhile, hotels in and around Ratchaprasong area such as the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, InterContinental Bangkok and Centara Grand at Central World Hotel, were operating normally on Sunday even though the protesters had announced they would gather in front of the Royal Thai Police headquarters located at the Ratchaprasong intersection.
The hotels said they would recommend safe places to visit to their guests and advise places to avoid.