Explosions On Sukhumvit 71 Believed To Have Minimum Impact On Tourism Industry

[IsaanUSA]

In the USA there wasn't much talk of Thailand directly. It was mostly talk of Iranians accidentally blowing up their house (which just happened to be located in Thailand). Thailand actually got lucky on this one since the terrorists were Iranian and that's the current hot topic in the US media.

It was just one of several "Israel/Iran bombing" stories this past week.

EDIT: Yeah, what JingThing said above.

Edited February 15, 2012 by IsaanUSA

[alexakap]

Minister of Tourism and Sports Mr. Chumpol Silapa-archa said the explosions in Bangkok yesterday would have a psychological effect on the tourism industry in Thailand.

He said the revision of travel warnings against Thailand issued by the U.S. and the United Kingdom may divert foreign tourists from this country in the future. However, he said no advance bookings have been canceled so far.

Since when the Minister knows about thousands of the cancellations in da thousands of travel agencies countrywide? Does he counting himself? No. Does any of the travel agencies report the bookings/cancellations directly to TOT? No. Any reports from the thousands of local hotels? No. Then, how?

Liars.

Please stop confusing TOT - they have enough trouble just providing decent internet service and phones........

Perhaps you meant TAT?

Yes, of course I meant TAT. Just mistyped...anyway, they are all same-same but different.

[LPCustom69]

So now the Thai government is playing word games The Bombers were "assasins" not "terrorists". What they will do in this country to play down a major incident.

http://www.guardian....orists-official

Heck they don't even want to call the red shirt's terrorists. What's three people to stupid to even build the bombs to them. Perhaps if the Police stations and government buildings were the targets they would change there mind.

The problem is, they might be the next time. And there will be a next time.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Of course. It is as usual.

Nothing can drive away the tourist herds from Thailand.

Not tsunamis, not riots, not prostitution / trafficing, not corruption, and certainly not terrorist attacks.

Prostitution is one of the main **attractions** for tourism - ever seen the statistics on proportions of single male tourists against the total compared to normal countries? And the foreign aspect (a tiny tiny segment) of Thailand's huge sex industry) has nothing to do with inbound trafficking AFAICT, that's for the domestic market.

Now outbound trafficking, which is a much more significant problem, is mostly to the Middle East and Japan, although there are occasionally instances where a farang will trick a girl into going "home" with him in order to get her into the commercial sex trade.

None of which has any impact on tourism whatsoever, unless you count the conferences and meetings on the topic, travel by foreign law enforcement and NGO workers etc, which of course is tiny.

[LomSak27]

More likely 'we are issuing this statement because we sure hope tourism won't be affected by it' PR push

[belg]

tourist numbers not down, i guess those people think with their d*** and not with their head and come here for some cheap sexual pleasure

[blackthorn2005]

The almighty tourist baht almost as important as tea money here in the LOS! Whether the Thai govt wants to admit it or not they dodged another bullet yesterday. For the sake of all of us Thailand does not need a Bali like incident. However, I think this country is a very soft target for somebody who knows what they're doing if so inclined.

Many soft targets all over Thailand, do not wait for the Thai government to tell you to avoid them, it will be too late!

[IsaanUSA]

tourist numbers not down, i guess those people think with their d*** and not with their head and come here for some cheap sexual pleasure

Or people just dont care about terrorists. The Iranian bombers happened once in Thailand. If it happened every few months, then I'm sure people would vacation elsewhere. People are more worried about their money and the perceived value they get from a destination.