Tourists Cancelling Travel Plans

[owenjones]

I received an email from a friend yesterday.

He has lived in Thailand for eight years, but had to go home to Northern Ireland to attend a funeral.

In the email, he asked me whether it was safe to return as he had just heard a warning on the news not to go to Thailand unless it was absolutely necessary.

I don't know whether that was the advice in mainland Britain too.

Here, in the nortth, you wouldn't know there was a problem.

Owen.

[wileycoyote]

I agree .

[LaoPo]

Maybe this chap, Apichart Sankary, can talk to TAT and ask them WHY the TAT doesn't supply the official statistics anymore !

It's a shame and I'll bet they're hiding the truth...

It's IMPOSSIBLE to find the 2008 statistics, not even for January 2008.

"Thailand Tourism Statistics 2008----------------There is not Thailand Tourism Statistics of this year."

http://www2.tat.or.th/stat/web/static_tts.php?Year=2008

Why not Mr. TAT - something to hide ?

LaoPo

Or maybe there are no 2008 stats as 2008 hasn't finished yet? The full stats always some out around March / April the following year. So expect to see 2008 stats, for the full year, in 6-7 months time.

In previous years the stats were available 2 or 3 months after (a certain month); no more

Apart from that, I may safely assume that TAT has computers as well and inform the public properly.

After all, it's the tax payers and tourists who pay for their existence.

It's PURE ARROGANCE that they don't inform the public properly and it's ABSURD we don't even have access to the January 2008 stats.

LaoPo

[think_too_mut]

Marriot in Phuket have reported 4.5 Million USD of cancellations for September ( mostly corporate bookings )

I can't imagine any corporate conference being organized anywhere in Thailand.

Nobody (of the organisers) wants to be fired over protests staged around the airports, staff missing their flights.

[ThaiEye]

What's all this fuss about avoiding Thailand because a couple of airports being shut for a couple of days? How come the Thai media and government didn't warn about travel to London after the buggage fiasco at terminal five earlier this year which affected tens of thousands of foreign visitors to England?

I notice that there are lots of 'statistics' regarding the decline in tourism recently, but don't forget that approximately fifty percentage of statistics are made up on the spot.

If you took the advice of every warning you ever heard, you would never go anywhere. Some of these travel warnings are just nonsense.

Edited September 9, 2008 by ThaiEye

[Treborz]

Well im still coming as planned, flying into Samui from Hong Kong for 3 nights then fly to bangkok for 2 nights before heading back home to Hong kong.

Think it's a big overreaction by some countries to deter people from travelling.

[adammike]

In the UK is used to be called the "silly season" here in the Netherlands its "cucumber time"

Its the media filling there pages with any thing they can.

The warnings from the various governments seemed fair and reasonable there did not seem

to be an over reaction,just doing there job,"dammed if you do dammed if you don't."

Its the silly season here.