Samut Sakhon outbreak hits New Year hotel bookings

[snoop1130]

Samut Sakhon outbreak hits New Year hotel bookings

By The Nation

 

Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association

 

Thailand’s domestic tourism market has been rocked by the outbreak of Covid-19 in Samut Sakhon province that has so far spawned more than 1,000 cases and threatened New Year celebrations across the country.

 

Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said the surge in infections has hit hotel bookings for New Year holidays. Many tourists have cancelled advance bookings, leaving hotels to foot the bill for singers, performers and DJs already booked for New Year celebrations.

 

The outbreak is expected to hurt the hospitality business in Bangkok and Hat Yai in the South, both of which are heavily dependent on foreign tourists. In Bangkok some hotels are bustling, but many have remained closed since the start of the virus crisis in early 2020 and are unlikely to open soon given New Year countdowns may be cancelled.

 

New Year domestic tourism in secondary cities such as Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nan, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani will likely be less badly hit. But hotels in Buriram, which is reliant on organised events, are expected to suffer a heavy impact over New Year from the outbreak.

 

Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said that before the Samut Sakhon outbreak, domestic tourism was on course to hit 100 million trips in 2020. That target has now been lowered to 95 million trips, generating income of Bt500 billion. Meanwhile the number of foreign tourists this year is expected to be around 6.7 million people, generating revenue of Bt330 billion, for total annual tourism revenue of Bt830 billion.

 

Yuthasak said tourists still wanted to holiday in popular destinations like Phetchaburi, Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan at New Year, but might have to adjust their travel plans to avoid risky areas like Samut Sakhon.

 

“Many may also change their travel plans to long-distance destinations that require a flight for the New Year's holiday,” he added.

 

TAT’s latest tracker report shows that just 1,201 foreign tourists entered Thailand in October, a fall of 99.96 per cent compared to the same month last year. Meanwhile domestic tourists in November totalled just over 16 million (16,017,165), an increase of 10.4 per cent from a year earlier and up 2.63 per cent from October.

 

November’s hotel occupancy rate was 37.56 per cent, a fall of 32.77 per cent from a year earlier but up 3.5 per cent from October.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30400033

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-12-22

 

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[sammieuk1]

Some recalculation of the TAT calculator will make all this negativity go away ????

[ThailandRyan]

Nothing says kick me when I am down more than the Covid issue.  Hopefully it gets handles and does not ravage this country as we go into the holiday season.  The last thing the Hoteliers association should be worried about is booking but instead should be worried about safety for all.  

5 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Yuthasak said tourists still wanted to holiday in popular destinations like Phetchaburi, Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan at New Year, but might have to adjust their travel plans to avoid risky areas like Samut Sakhon

Samut Sakhn is not the only area where cases are growing, she needs to start looking around, Phuket, Nonthaburi, new cases in Petchabun, and Mae Sot.  I expect the numbers to keep increasing from the traveling done for the provincial elections and the 4 day weekend that ended 9 days ago.

[hotchilli]

A week or more to go before New Year... next week will show what direction it's going in.

[Anton9]

Cancelled my hotel booking at Hua Hin because I don't want to get locked out of Bkk.

Covid doesn't bother me at all but hysteria and hypocondriacs do.

[brewsterbudgen]

17 minutes ago, Anton9 said:

Cancelled my hotel booking at Hua Hin because I don't want to get locked out of Bkk.

Covid doesn't bother me at all but hysteria and hypocondriacs do.

Me too.  I'm not worried about Covid, but I am worried about getting locked down in Hua Hin, or losing my deposit because we're locked down in Bangkok!

[khunPer]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Many tourists have cancelled advance bookings, leaving hotels to foot the bill for singers, performers and DJs already booked for New Year celebrations.

Sounds little strange to me. Normally there will be a "force majeure" clause in performer-contracts, I've never seen one without it. Covid-19 should count as force majeure, and we still have a week until New Year, so that should be due time to cancel before the artists began travelling to the venues...????