Hat Yai's hotel booking down to 20-30 per cent

BANGKOK: -- Hotel bookings in Hat Yai, Thailand's main tourism hub in its violence-plagued southern provinces, have dropped to 20 to 30 per cent and will lead to massive layoffs if the government refuses to help the industry, media reports said Sunday.

Six Hat Yai tourism associations have issued a list of 10 demands to the government to save the city's tourism industry, that has been devastated by three years of escalating violence in the deep south that has already claimed an estimated 2,000 victims, reported the Bangkok Post.

Hat Yai's tourism industry has asked for tax cuts, reduced utility rates, access to low-interest loans and a government-sponsored publicity campaign to keep their businesses running, claiming that if things don't pick up by mid-year there will be mass layoffs.

'After facing so many bombings and arson attacks, Hat Yai is no longer the place it used to be,' said Somboon Ponglertnapakorn, a Hat Yai hotelier.

The vast majority of Hat Yai's foreign tourists come form neighbouring Malaysia, but a wave of violence in the region, often targetting tourist venues, is understandably keeping Malaysian tourists away.

Although most of the attacks have been in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - the violence has occasionally spilled over into Hat Yai, the south's chief commercial and tourism centre.

In September, a series of bombs detonated in Hat Yai killed four people including one Canadian and wounded scores of others.

Thailand's deep south has been gripped by a simmering separatist movement for decades. The area, once an independent Islamic sultanate called Pattani, was first conquered by Bangkok in 1786 but only came under the direct rule of the Thai bureaucracy in 1902.

Pattani's separatist struggle has been fuelled by the local population's sense of religious and cultural alienation from the predominantly Buddhist Thai state. More than 80 per cent of the 2 million people in the three-province region describe themselves as Muslims.

--DPA 2007-03-11

Why are the Thais whining?

They are sex tourists (don't get as much attention though as they are mostly non-white sex tourists!) and don't the Thias want a better class of visitor?

If it puts them off (the "fun seekers") it will certainly put families off!

Should be careful what kind of tourist you wish for, you may get them and they may not be as hardy as the ones you are getting rid of!

Hat Yai's hotel booking down to 20-30 per cent

BANGKOK: -- Hotel bookings in Hat Yai, Thailand's main tourism hub in its violence-plagued southern provinces, have dropped to 20 to 30 per cent and will lead to massive layoffs if the government refuses to help the industry, media reports said Sunday.

Six Hat Yai tourism associations have issued a list of 10 demands to the government to save the city's tourism industry, that has been devastated by three years of escalating violence in the deep south that has already claimed an estimated 2,000 victims, reported the Bangkok Post.

Hat Yai's tourism industry has asked for tax cuts, reduced utility rates, access to low-interest loans and a government-sponsored publicity campaign to keep their businesses running, claiming that if things don't pick up by mid-year there will be mass layoffs.

'After facing so many bombings and arson attacks, Hat Yai is no longer the place it used to be,' said Somboon Ponglertnapakorn, a Hat Yai hotelier.

The vast majority of Hat Yai's foreign tourists come form neighbouring Malaysia, but a wave of violence in the region, often targetting tourist venues, is understandably keeping Malaysian tourists away.

Although most of the attacks have been in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - the violence has occasionally spilled over into Hat Yai, the south's chief commercial and tourism centre.

In September, a series of bombs detonated in Hat Yai killed four people including one Canadian and wounded scores of others.

Thailand's deep south has been gripped by a simmering separatist movement for decades. The area, once an independent Islamic sultanate called Pattani, was first conquered by Bangkok in 1786 but only came under the direct rule of the Thai bureaucracy in 1902.

Pattani's separatist struggle has been fuelled by the local population's sense of religious and cultural alienation from the predominantly Buddhist Thai state. More than 80 per cent of the 2 million people in the three-province region describe themselves as Muslims.

--DPA 2007-03-11

I'm surprised they didn't blame Australia's travel warnings...........................

So what's the beef ?

The only tourists in Hat Yai are sex tourists from south of the border.

Naka.

So what's the beef ?

The only tourists in Hat Yai are sex tourists from south of the border.

Naka.

I guess they're still waiting for some of those French Riviera and Monaco tourists they said were going to be flocking to Thailand soon.

Edited March 11, 200719 yr by wintermute

Has tourism in Betong been affected?

Hotel bookings in Hat Yai, Thailand's main tourism hub in its violence-plagued southern provinces,

So . . . this is a hub within a hub? Or should it be the hub within the hub . . .

And as for;

'After facing so many bombings and arson attacks, Hat Yai is no longer the place it used to be,' said Somboon Ponglertnapakorn, a Hat Yai hotelier.

Really? Razor sharp deduction there . . . on the other hand this could just be the attraction to become the Hub for Extreme Tourism.

I am pretty cynical myself, but I can't help but feel sorry for the people who are trying to make a living down there.

If Hat Yai goes "under" then it's a big victory for the bad folks. All they have to do is keep whittling away at business and regular folks and pretty soon the place will be abandoned to them and the military.