Thailand’s Tourism Council reports ZERO bookings following coronavirus outbreak

[webfact]

Thailand’s Tourism Council reports ZERO bookings following coronavirus outbreak

 

Picture: TNA MCOT

 

Thailand’s Tourism Council has revealed the extent in which the industry has been left decimated following the recent outbreak of the coronavirus.

 

On Wednesday, Members of the Tourism Council of Thailand met in Bangkok to try and find possible solutions to what is now a dire situation, which has negatively impacted all sectors of the tourism industry.

 

TCT chair Chairat Trirattanajarasporn said the impact from coronavirus was worse than all other disasters, even worse than the SARS and MERS outbreaks or other natural disasters.

 

“This time, tourism has plummeted and the impact is affecting all corners of the tourism sector”, Mr Chairat warned. 

 

“Hotels with 700-800 rooms which would normally be full at this time of year now have zero bookings”, he added.

 

Mr Chairat  went on to say that it is not just hotels which are affected, but also coach operators and other workers in the sector.

 

The problems began when China banned all outbound tours in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Mr Chairat said.

 

With Chinese tourists making up the biggest group of visitors to Thailand, the tourism sector lost its main source of income overnight.

 

Mr Chairat acknowledged that while some measures from the government, such as tax breaks and favourable rates on loans, were beneficial, more was needed in order to support the beleaguered tourism industry during this turbulent time. 

 

He added that the industry as a whole must take good care of the other tourists who remain in Thailand, while also exploring new markets to compensate for the absence of Chinese tourists. 

 

As of yet, it is not known when China will lift its outbound travel ban.

 

Earlier this week, the Phuket News revealed how the sudden plunge in Chinese tourists had left some 3,000 Chinese speaking tour guides without work.

 

On Monday, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports estimated that tourist arrivals from China were down around 80 percent, which could end up costing Thailand 50 billion baht ($1.52 billion) in lost tourism revenue.

 

Via TNA MCOT

 

 

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[thequietman]

Dry your eyes. 

[RotBenz8888]

5 minutes ago, webfact said:

He added that the industry as a whole must take good care of the other tourists who remain in Thailand,

You can use the gray carpet, the red one will be stowed away until our Chinese friends recovers.

[darksidedog]

10 minutes ago, webfact said:

The problems began when China banned all outbound tours

I disagree. Problems have been mounting for some time, with many staying away from Thailand for a number of reasons, mostly of a home grown nature. Strength of the Baht, greed, fraud, danger etc. And as most of the eggs had been put into one basket, the super storm for tourism has now arrived.

[NCC1701A]

10 minutes ago, webfact said:

He added that the industry as a whole must take good care of the other tourists who remain in Thailand,

yeah, try not to kill them.

[Orac]

“TCT chair Chairat Trirattanajarasporn said the impact from coronavirus was worse than all other disasters, even worse than the SARS and MERS outbreaks or other natural disasters.”

 

Guess the Tsunami is being airbrushed out of history then.

[colinneil]

What a crock of s++t, problems began when China banned all outbound tours.

Do these people actually believe that?

Problems have been slowly mounting over the last few years.

T.A.T.  have been that busy forging tourist arrival numbers, they believe this.

[neeray]

12 minutes ago, webfact said:

........ while also exploring new markets to compensate for the absence of Chinese tourists. 

Should have been actively doing this all along instead of depending on the Chinese and Indians.

[Yadon Toploy]

 

I reckon an economic crash is now inevitable here. 

 

Save your cash as there will be loads of vehicles, apartments and houses up for sale in the near future.

 

Not to mention higher crime rates.

 

It's going to get messy.

Edited February 6, 2020 by metisdead
Trolling meme removed.

[nikmar]

I think the problems began when the Pheonix sank and Mr Charisma himself muttered about Chinese boat operators. 

[3421abc]

Good!! That's karma for treating westerners like <deleted>. 

[ThreeEyedRaven]

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

while also exploring new markets to compensate for the absence of Chinese tourists. 

The problem being of course that many of those other potential markets already know all too well the pitfalls involved when visiting here. Every tourist who went home with a story of being robbed, ripped off, injured, or other tragedy, compounded by the BIB who have set up many, many people over the years for quick cash, told their story to many who now won't be tempted.

I feel sorry for many who are honest and depend on tourism for their livelihood, but on the whole Thailand has itself to blame for numbers from many countries falling prior to this virus, which really is the icing on the cake.

[GeorgeCross]

4 hours ago, Yadon Toploy said:

 

 

I reckon an economic crash is now inevitable here. 

 

Save your cash as there will be loads of vehicles, apartments and houses up for sale in the near future

 

already are where i live. 

 

from desperate to leave expats, mandatory insurance opened the floodgates

 

 not sure about the thai market, thats all credit anyway and the banks are very lenient

 

 

 

 

[smedly]

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

The problems began when China banned all outbound tours in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Mr Chairat said.

So does Thailand agree with the measures China is taking to protect other countries or not ?

[anchadian]

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/indonesia-imposes-travel-ban-to-and-from-china/

 

Indonesia imposes travel ban to and from China

• February 6, 2020

Apart from Thailand:

 

“Yes, it will start at [midnight],” Budi told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re doing what other countries have already done. We have been very careful about this.”

Thailand with the highest number of infections outside China, should have implemented the above a long time ago.

 

Death toll rises to 563:

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/china-coronavirus-death-toll-rises-to-563-12399726

BEIJING: The number of confirmed fatalities from China's coronavirus outbreak rose to at least 563, after authorities in hardest-hit Hubei province reported 73 new deaths on Thursday (Feb 6). 

 

In its daily update, the health commission in Hubei also confirmed another 3,694 new cases.

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by anchadian

[Denim]

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

On Wednesday, Members of the Tourism Council of Thailand met in Bangkok to try and find possible solutions to what is now a dire situation

 

Easy . Put prices up and stricter enforcement of TM30 rule.

 

All tourist visa applications to be made online using a broken application URL

 

Sorted.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

This is pretty bad, even for hotels and holiday rental operators who don't cater exclusively to China.  For just about everyone in Chiang Mai for example, Chinese are about one third of everything.

 

Plus, other people from other Asian countries are also canceling, from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. 

 

So now you're down to about 50% .. and everyone is competing for that 50%, driving prices way down, so you end up with revenue that's perhaps 25% of normal.  

[GeorgeCross]

27 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s Tourism Council reports ZERO bookings following coronavirus outbreak

to..

28 minutes ago, webfact said:

"Hotels with 700-800 rooms which would normally be full at this time of year now have zero bookings”, he added

 

nice! clicky 

 

[GeorgeCross]

1 minute ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

This is pretty bad, even for hotels and holiday rental operators who don't cater exclusively to China.  For just about everyone in Chiang Mai for example, Chinese are about one third of everything.

 

Plus, other people from other Asian countries are also canceling, from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. 

 

So now you're down to about 50% .. and everyone is competing for that 50%, driving prices way down, so you end up with revenue that's perhaps 25% of normal.  

 

not surprised. is anyone traveling anywhere with open borders & infected right now?

 

 

[ChipButty]

Last low season was slow compared to recent years so we was anticipating the high season being not so good but surprisingly enough we were doing ok with bookings from Russians not many Chinese the problem now is peoples flights are being cancelled we had a guest last night from Mexico cancel because his flights had been cancelled which were via China so I advised him if he could change his flights and not to use a Chinese airline avoid China he would still be able to get here, maybe.

I think tourism was already in decline before this virus I read on Booking.com the cancellation rate is over 60% the other day could be more now

[RotBenz8888]

5 hours ago, Yadon Toploy said:

 

 

I reckon an economic crash is now inevitable here. 

 

Save your cash as there will be loads of vehicles, apartments and houses up for sale in the near future.

 

Not to mention higher crime rates.

 

It's going to get messy.

Less Chinese are buying Condos, soon they'll start selling????its Gona be a spicy Tom yam gung!

[neeray]

4 minutes ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

This is pretty bad, even for hotels and holiday rental operators who don't cater exclusively to China.  For just about everyone in Chiang Mai for example, Chinese are about one third of everything.

 

Plus, other people from other Asian countries are also canceling, from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. 

 

So now you're down to about 50% .. and everyone is competing for that 50%, driving prices way down, so you end up with revenue that's perhaps 25% of normal.  

But wait!

Normally it is said that Thais increase prices, not decrease, when revenue is down.

 

[ChipButty]

5 minutes ago, Denim said:

 

Easy . Put prices up and stricter enforcement of TM30 rule.

 

All tourist visa applications to be made online using a broken application URL

 

Sorted.

As a long term Farang we used to take lots of trips either fly or drive somewhere for a few days spend quiet a bit of money, hotels, gasoline, food and drink over 3 or 4 days but we have stopped not been anywhere for a long time, how many people like me have done the same? 

[Just1Voice]

let me put some heat rub under one eye to see if I can get a tear. 

[SteveK]

So tourism is decimated. The Thai authorities have had ample time to correct some of the major issues putting off tourists. Instead they kept saying goods guys in, bad guys out, let's focus on Indians and Chinese, chim, chop, chai, 100 baht vouchers, Pokemon Go, durian Kitkats.

 

Had they actually make some changes that made a difference, i.e. telling immigration to stop being so unfriendly to people coming to Thailand to spend money, take steps to control the over-valued baht, crack down on scams, garbage on the beaches, taxi mafias etc, then maybe they could have ridden out the coronavirus. But now lots of restaurants and hotels and restaurants are gonna be screwed. Who owns them? Thais.

 

So as someone mentioned this is karma for having a head in the sand approach to their tourism woes and treating western tourists like garbage.

[DannyCarlton]

11 minutes ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

This is pretty bad, even for hotels and holiday rental operators who don't cater exclusively to China.  For just about everyone in Chiang Mai for example, Chinese are about one third of everything.

 

Plus, other people from other Asian countries are also canceling, from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. 

 

So now you're down to about 50% .. and everyone is competing for that 50%, driving prices way down, so you end up with revenue that's perhaps 25% of normal.  

Thailand has received an extremely bad press over this in the West. Media constantly mentioning that Thailand is the highest risk country outside China. You can knock a big chunk of Western tourists off that 50% figure.

[ChipButty]

2 minutes ago, SteveK said:

So tourism is decimated. The Thai authorities have had ample time to correct some of the major issues putting off tourists. Instead they kept saying goods guys in, bad guys out, let's focus on Indians and Chinese, chim, chop, chai, 100 baht vouchers, Pokemon Go, durian Kitkats.

 

Had they actually make some changes that made a difference, i.e. telling immigration to stop being so unfriendly to people coming to Thailand to spend money, take steps to control the over-valued baht, crack down on scams, garbage on the beaches, taxi mafias etc, then maybe they could have ridden out the coronavirus. But now lots of restaurants and hotels and restaurants are gonna be screwed. Who owns them? Thais.

 

So as someone mentioned this is karma for having a head in the sand approach to their tourism woes and treating western tourists like garbage.

Some Thai restaurant complaining to my wife this morning about being quiet and they mainly cater to Thai's, so have they got no money to spend?

[Just1Voice]

1 minute ago, ChipButty said:

As a long term Farang we used to take lots of trips either fly or drive somewhere for a few days spend quiet a bit of money, hotels, gasoline, food and drink over 3 or 4 days but we have stopped not been anywhere for a long time, how many people like me have done the same? 

I used to take trips evert other month for about 8years, all over the north, north-east and central regions, for up to a week at a time, on either my CBR 250, CB 300f or 300cc Forza. TM-30 killed that. 

[madmitch]

43 minutes ago, webfact said:

TCT chair Chairat Trirattanajarasporn said the impact from coronavirus was worse than all other disasters, even worse than the SARS and MERS outbreaks or other natural disasters.

Well, that's no surprise because at that time Chinese tourism was a minor part of the industry.

 

I would disagree that the effect of this is worse than the tsunami, well in Phuket anyway. Karon Beach was packed yesterday afternoon; post-tsunami you'd see a few washed up flip-flops, some broken beach furniture, half a dozen tourists and a couple of beach dogs.

[Assurancetourix]

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

The problems began when China banned all outbound tours in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Mr Chairat said.

Fortunately, because if we had to wait for the Thai authorities to do like Japan and other countries with a reactive government, ... well we would still wait because Thailand has still not closed its borders to planes, ships and land traffic.