Worst yet to come: Wuhan flu fallout to cost Phuket B9bn in March, says PSU expert

By The Phuket News

 

A sign hangs on closed shutters on a shop in Phuket Town. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot

 

PHUKET: The fallout from the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus may cost Phuket’s tourism industry up to B32 billion by the time the industry starts to recover, experts revealed this week – and that is if the spread of the virus starts to be contained by April.

 

The predicted impact came during a visit to Phuket by Nathee Thinsakoo, Deputy Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, on Monday (Feb 17) to hear grievances from the ailing industry.

 

Mr Nathee’s visit to Phuket comes amid a dramatic plunge in the number of international tourist arrivals at Phuket International Airport – falling anywhere from 21% to 48% year on year to the day from Feb 1-18, but so far averaging as a fall of just over 36% overall.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/worst-yet-to-come-wuhan-flu-fallout-to-cost-phuket-b9bn-in-march-says-psu-expert-74944.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2020-02-23

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The gravy train has jumped the tracks

While not Phuket related it shows what's happening in the Tourist sector,

The hotel my daughter used to work at ,in  very tourist area of Chiang Mai,

it has 80 rooms,they have closed the floors down and only have 10 rooms

open,and things will not get any better in the coming months,with low

season to come.

regards Worgeordie

 

 

7 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

While not Phuket related it shows what's happening in the Tourist sector,

The hotel my daughter used to work at ,in  very tourist area of Chiang Mai,

it has 80 rooms,they have closed the floors down and only have 10 rooms

open,and things will not get any better in the coming months,with low

season to come.

regards Worgeordie

 

 

It's happening in Phuket also I know of a hotel which happens to be only 1 year old nice place as well, looks deserted nothing on the car park when I drove bye the other day, I guess their mistake was the Chinese tour groups I knew the general manager and he's gone.

600 million Baht and the clock is ticking 

1 minute ago, ChipButty said:

It's happening in Phuket also I know of a hotel which happens to be only 1 year old nice place as well, looks deserted nothing on the car park when I drove bye the other day, I guess their mistake was the Chinese tour groups I knew the general manager and he's gone.

600 million Baht and the clock is ticking 

I wonder if the Government will help those working in the tourist industries,

like they do with the farmers,lots of people are going to be out of work.

regards Worgeordie

 

I have it on good authority, my tourism business says SEA and ASIA is off the tourism mark for 36 months.

A local condo that acted as a hotel for Chinese has closed its doors to tourist, no doubt pleasing those that actually own units there. A large, well-established international brand hotel is asking all staff to take 20 days off over the next couple of months. No doubt many, many similar stories around the island.

5 minutes ago, Inepto Cracy said:

I have it on good authority, my tourism business says SEA and ASIA is off the tourism mark for 36 months.

Just like it was after SARS, bird flu and the tsunami!!!

 

 

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Wuhan flu fallout to cost Phuket B9bn in March, says PSU expert

Is that including all the bribes?

9 minutes ago, madmitch said:

Just like it was after SARS, bird flu and the tsunami!!!

 

 

But I'm not sure there was that much of an impact on revenue from those events.

 

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/thailand/tourism-revenue

5 minutes ago, saengd said:

But I'm not sure there was that much of an impact on revenue from those events.

 

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/thailand/tourism-revenue

Thailand wasn't as reliant on Chinese tourism at the time. I agree this seems much worse.

I'm still waiting for the

"Record number of tourist arrivals " report which usually happens after any report of low tourism .

Hopefully less demand for goods and service will lead to lower prices. I do realize that this is contrary to Thai pricing.

 

Phuket was the most expensive place in Thailand for accommodation and tourism.

47 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

I'm still waiting for the

"Record number of tourist arrivals " report which usually happens after any report of low tourism .

No, that'll be next year when they report on the year on year increases in tourist numbers. They'll be so excited.

By studying the timeline of how the virus ramped up in China, Thailand is about 4 to 5 weeks behind, in the timeline.

So, "and that is if the spread of the virus starts to be contained by April",  would seem to be a highly optimistic

wish. 

More likely that it will still be rapidly expanding into the Song Kran holiday period, at which point the risk of further spread will be exasperated by all of the people crammed into busses and airplanes.

Thailand needs to be extremely vigilant now, as this virus is not following normal cold and flu patterns, when it comes to it's ability to spread.

Full transparency is needed, which is often lacking in this part of the world.

7 hours ago, ChipButty said:

It's happening in Phuket also I know of a hotel which happens to be only 1 year old nice place as well, looks deserted nothing on the car park when I drove bye the other day, I guess their mistake was the Chinese tour groups I knew the general manager and he's gone.

600 million Baht and the clock is ticking 

I knew of a 3 star hotel asking selected staffs to take a 3 mths holiday but only 1.5mths salary. Becoz its an old hotel most staffs been there since forever they are supportive of it.

8 hours ago, worgeordie said:

I wonder if the Government will help those working in the tourist industries,

like they do with the farmers,lots of people are going to be out of work.

regards Worgeordie

 

The Tourists have only stopped coming  ( mostly ) to Thailand in the last few weeks.

And already the Thai " Business Owners " are sticking out their grubby mitts for Government money.

Whilst I feel for the lower workers in these  Business,s who will end up losing their Jobs, I have no sympathy at all for the Owners of these Gouging Operations, who will take the Government Cash, declare Bankruptcy, and live well off their handouts until times get better, and because they are Bankrupt, the Government will not get back any Money Loaned to them or any Taxes that are due.

And when times get better, they will just start another Business under a different name with different Directors.

Don’t worry, the Indians will come in massive numbers, and the Chinese will come double-next month, when it’s all over ????

If the current regime could decouple itself from China—the Baht would relax, and exports and western tourism would flourish again.

21 hours ago, Inepto Cracy said:

I have it on good authority, my tourism business says SEA and ASIA is off the tourism mark for 36 months.

What “good authority” would that be? There is nothing to compare so how do “your good authorities”  come up with that?

No chance anyone can predict the future, but in the case of SARS and swine flu, everyone was back to business PDQ and I have that on better authority than you my friend.