Hotels emptying and travel services seeing steep drop in business as Thai capital remains dangerous for foreign tourists.

The continuing clashes between government and demonstrators in the Thai capital of Bangkok and ongoing political instability have had a hugely negative effect on the country’s tourist industry, reports leading Thailand travel website 1StopThailand.com.

While the protests have been limited to specific parts of Bangkok and have not directly affected visitors to the majority of the country’s popular tourist destinations, the ongoing instability is still putting people off visiting Thailand. Since the beginning of April when the protests changed from being peaceful demonstrations to more violent clashes, there has been a steep decline in visitors to Bangkok and users of travel services.

Hotel occupancy in Bangkok has fallen by between 40% and 50% for the time of year, meaning that accommodation occupancy stands at just 20% approximately. Four of Bangkok’s largest shopping malls have been forced to close due to the protests and it is estimated that the political unrest is costing Bangkok businesses as much as $30m per day.

Andrew Bond, editor of the 1StopBangkok.com website, commented, “The protracted political crisis arising originally from the 2006 coup has become a terrible drag on tourism and the Thai economy, tourists are still coming but the image of the country as a peaceful destination has taken a battering”.

“Our 1StopBangkok.com website has seen a 20% fall in users since the unrest become more violent in April, and notwithstanding the end of the tourist season that’s still a massive drop. So not only are people not visiting Bangkok in person, they’re also not visiting Thailand ‘virtually’ either.”

Via EPR Network
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