Bangkok Mayhem Effect On Tourism

[kenallday]

What is the real deal in Bangkok at the moment are the Hotels, restaurants etc. suffering from the violence or are we to believe the Thai tourism <deleted> that all is well and there is no ploblem - Bangkok is looking like a war zone on International TV currently.

[SomTumTiger]

Well, I arrived at Swampy at noon on Tuesday, and Immigration was backed up as usual. Until that changes, I don't give a lot of credence reports of dropping numbers.

[garyh]

Australian government is saying do not travel to Thailand, this includes the prime minister making a public statement to this effect.

[DeathbyDurian]

I just flew here from the Seoul airport last night. There were two flights to BKK, one at 730pm (mine) and one at 830pm.

Both were less than half full so they cancelled my flight and put everyone on the 830 one.

At immigration last night the foreign line was actually faster than the Thai one, first time I'd ever seen that...

[slapout]

The TAT has been projecting 15 million visitors to Thailand this year. I read one of the pundits was quoted as saying the number could be less than 10 million. As both seem to be guesses and it may be doubtful that either one is what could be called a educated guess, we will probably never know the real numbers. The business people who depend on the tourists for their living are probably a good source of info, of course this depends on their plan, to remain or sell their venture as to reliable info.

A year from now many numbers will be be bandied around, innumerable small businesses will close or change hands as always. What part the Bangkok mayhem will have had will be unknown. This is just another bump in a road that seems over the past few years to have seen too little maintenance/repair.