Hurricane Sandy To Have Little Effect On U S Tourism To Thailand, Experts Say

[webfact]

HURRICANE SANDY EFFECT

Hurricane Sandy to have little effect on US tourism to Thailand, experts say

Bamrung Amnatcharoenrit

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey on Monday, will have only a marginal impact on the number of American tourists coming to Thailand, as the United States is a big country with many international airports, according to executives in the tourism industry.

At worst, they believe that flights may be postponed for two or three days before the situation returns to normal. Also, Americans are accustomed to natural disasters like this.

Juthaporn Rerngronasa, deputy governor for marketing in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, believes the impact will be light. Overall this year, the number of American tourists coming to Thailand will rise by 11 per cent to 710,000 this year, from about 600,000 last year.

"It is very short-term impact," she said.

Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said the hurricane's effect on Thai tourism would be slight. Some tourists will have booked in advance. In fact, 90 per cent of American tourists come here by themselves, and the rest with tour companies.

Pornthip Samerton, managing director of Destination Asia, a veteran inbound travel agency, believes the situation will take only a few days to return to normal.

However, she thought a more serious impact on outbound US tourism would be the presidential election. The agency is keeping an eye on that situation as a "big issue".

An executive said most flight cancellations during the severe weather on the US east coast were domestic, not international. The United States is a big country that relies heavily on air transport. The situation will not have much of an impact on Thai tourism.

-- The Nation 2012-10-31

[TheGhostWithin]

The so called experts in this country are an absolute joke, more often than not.

There have been thousands of flights accross the usa, and also globally which go via the US, which have been cancelled. Thats is thousands of flights, each carying hundreds of passengers. The lag effect caused by people trying to get on new flights after their original flights will further constrain the system. We are entering the end of the year, a time when many students under the british education model take their winter/summer breaks until Jan/Feb, and many Thai students go home.

Many factors to take into account in which an already typically constrained peak US holiday season will be further stressed, meaning those "quality" tourists who book last minute to phuket, or families heading to pattaya to stay in luxury 5 star resorts will either postphone, cancel, or go somewhere closer to home.

Thousands of passengers trying to get home early for christmas break will not mix in well with tens of thousands of delayed passengers, nor will it free up capicity any time soon. Planes will stay fuller, for longer, but those who work and have money may not be able to ammend their holidays to compensate for one of the flaws of the international airline industry.

So much for the "expert(s)" opinion.

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Thaivisa Connect App

Edited October 31, 2012 by TheGhostWithin

[noitom]

What preposterous dribble. You would think that someone in an official Thai capacity on behalf of Thailand might have something to say in compassion for the millions of Americans suffering tremendous damage and hardship. The last thing we want to see is Thailand monetizing Sandy's after effect for its own self-centered advantage. How crass. http://www.foxnews.com/weather/slideshow/2012/10/29/superstorm-sandy-hits-east-coast/#slide=1

It's unlikely that many Americans across the wide path of Sandy will be interested in seeing elephants, temples, and bar girls in Thailand this year. There will always be a hard core of sex trade Americans, but the majority will stay at home in America and focus on their own economic recovery rather than lining the pockets of Thai hustlers and over priced overrated fish balls.

[54321]

"Overall this year, the number of American tourists coming to Thailand will rise by 11 per cent to 710,000 this year, from about 600,000 last year." a very big 11%

[el jefe]

I'm in NYC at the moment and I don't see anything wrong with the article, other than the 11% math.

There's really nothing wrong with Thai officials discussing how a natural disaster will affect tourism.

Tens of millions of people on the east coast have been affected, mostly inconvenienced by a temporary loss of power and a lack of mass transit. Thousands have been affected directly with damage or complete loss of their homes.

The airports were shut for 2 1/2 days and are scheduled to reopen in the morning. The number of people who will cancel trips to Thailand is minimal.

[Pib]

At worst, they believe that flights may be postponed for two or three days before the situation returns to normal. Also, Americans are accustomed to natural disasters like this.

Sure, natural disasters like this happen all the time in America...natural disasters are considered the norm.....Americans just continue on to work and school...tough breed those Americans. What a joke the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is...just clueless....will say anything to keep up the facade of ever-climbing Thailand tourism numbers....nothing can stop Thailand!!!! Sandy was a huge and powerful storm large enough to engulf over a third of the continental U.S....big enough to cover all of Thailand, even all of Southeast Asia and lower part of China. Yeap, the HiSo in the TAT who made about statement is just clueless....living in his little Thai universe.

[jaltsc]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

[DocN]

Wow...that guy has the priorities right!

[DDuval]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Edited October 31, 2012 by DDuval

[KuhnPaen]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Exactly.

[FOODLOVER]

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

[pacovl46]

Why is this even a concern???

[Pimay1]

If God forbid a major earth quake hit swampy and the airport dissapeared TAT would say "This will have very little effect on the number of tourists visiting Thailand".

[DocN]

If God forbid a major earth quake hit swampy and the airport dissapeared TAT would say "This will have very little effect on the number of tourists visiting Thailand".

Even better: one week later, they will be out with rising numbers!

[metisdead]

A post using overly large fonts as well as disguised profanity has been removed. Use the default forum font when posting.

Posting in all capitals or in all bold, and using large or unusual fonts and colors is bad netiquette.

[sangfroid]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

+1

[bumpkin]

Why should it deter? They can now visit another city prone to flooding

[asiawatcher]

"... the United States is a big country with many international airports, according to executives in the tourism industry..."

What genius exec figured this out... Give me strength. Journo's and reports in this country are side splitters.

[Ricardo]

The som-tam lady, font of knowledge on all things Thai, says that the government is actually very concerned, about the emergence of this new potential rice-growing region.

[IsaanUSA]

Why is this even a concern???

Exactly. American's don't make up much of a percentage of tourists in Thailand anyways, so if a fraction of those people cancel their trips, then there's really no difference to the tourist numbers for the year.

Article should have been, "Hurricane Sandy to have very small effect on world wide tourism". Natural disasters happen the US every year in the US. It's expected. Fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, presidential elections, etc.

[Scott]

Why is this even a concern???

<snipped>

Article should have been, "Hurricane Sandy to have very small effect on world wide tourism". Natural disasters happen the US every year in the US. It's expected. Fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, presidential elections, etc.

I like that, presidential elections are considered a natural disaster!

[Nisa]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Can you imagine how outraged people would be in the US if there were headlines in the US quoting dollars lost due to the hurricane ... worse imagine if they were giving estimates not only during and after but also before it hit.

[Halion]

Want a real negative impact on tourism. ? Simply have the various Embasy's put out real and genuine travel alerts concerning the drugs ,violence, corruption, road carnage that is an every day part of our existence and also let the world know that there has been a Muslim initiated war going on in the southy for the past 20 years. I would love to see how TAT would put a spin on that.

[khaowong1]

What preposterous dribble. You would think that someone in an official Thai capacity on behalf of Thailand might have something to say in compassion for the millions of Americans suffering tremendous damage and hardship. The last thing we want to see is Thailand monetizing Sandy's after effect for its own self-centered advantage. How crass. http://www.foxnews.com/weather/slideshow/2012/10/29/superstorm-sandy-hits-east-coast/#slide=1

It's unlikely that many Americans across the wide path of Sandy will be interested in seeing elephants, temples, and bar girls in Thailand this year. There will always be a hard core of sex trade Americans, but the majority will stay at home in America and focus on their own economic recovery rather than lining the pockets of Thai hustlers and over priced overrated fish balls.

But don't you know that all of us Americans are rich.. nothing effects us. Our streets are made of gold and we have 100 dollar bill money trees growing in our yards.

[Nisa]

BANGKOK: -- Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey on Monday, will have only a marginal impact on the number of American tourists coming to Thailand, as the United States is a big country with many international airports, according to executives in the tourism industry.

At worst, they believe that flights may be postponed for two or three days before the situation returns to normal. Also, Americans are accustomed to natural disasters like this.

Who can argue with anything said here except the last line of "Americans are accustomed to natural disasters like this" which truly does seem like an idiotic statement in this context ... and just about any other.

Bottom line is this will have no noticeable impact on Thai tourism. Us the figure of 700,000 (only 600k last year) tourists from the US who come to Thailand every year (a lot less if you believe posters here who say a large percent are counted multiple times doing border runs) and this would equal about 1,900 people a day .. not factoring in most probably come in high season and we are not in the high season but lets keep both numbers at the high mark. So basically the airports are closed for a day or two but lets say 3. This would mean 5,800 people will be affected from all of America. Now lets consider the fact that the vast majority of the people are not originating their trip or flying through airports that were closed but we will only 1/2 the number to make it 2,900 people who were affected. If even all of these people cancelled their trips and decided to throw out their vacation and money spent on tickets it wouldn't be a noticeable difference.

What makes this story kind of silly is that I am not sure anybody was thinking this would have some impact on Thai tourism.

[el jefe]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Can you imagine how outraged people would be in the US if there were headlines in the US quoting dollars lost due to the hurricane ... worse imagine if they were giving estimates not only during and after but also before it hit.

That's exactly what Gov Christie and Mayor Bloomberg are talking about. The questions get asked of them repeatedly.

[Nisa]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Can you imagine how outraged people would be in the US if there were headlines in the US quoting dollars lost due to the hurricane ... worse imagine if they were giving estimates not only during and after but also before it hit.

That's exactly what Gov Christie and Mayor Bloomberg are talking about. The questions get asked of them repeatedly.

You may already know this but to be clear, I was being sarcastic but for some reason all my formatting options are greyed out as well as putting the little emotion faces. Probably need to clear my cache or something.

[Curt1591]

I'm just glad to see that there are Thai experts that can put the storm into proper perspective!

Edited October 31, 2012 by Curt1591

[Nisa]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Can you imagine how outraged people would be in the US if there were headlines in the US quoting dollars lost due to the hurricane ... worse imagine if they were giving estimates not only during and after but also before it hit.

That's exactly what Gov Christie and Mayor Bloomberg are talking about. The questions get asked of them repeatedly.

Interesting read for all those who continually promote the notions Thais are selfish and only care about themselves when it comes to money ... http://unitedexplanations.org/english/2011/12/28/thailand-is-the-most-generous-country-in-the-world-in-2011/

Edited October 31, 2012 by Nisa

[FOODLOVER]

Let's see. Tsunami hits Thailand. USA collects donations to help Thais affected by the disaster. Hurricane hits USA, Thais estimate how much revenue will be lost on local tourism. Thailand, Hub of "I only care about me"

Can you imagine how outraged people would be in the US if there were headlines in the US quoting dollars lost due to the hurricane ... worse imagine if they were giving estimates not only during and after but also before it hit.

That's exactly what Gov Christie and Mayor Bloomberg are talking about. The questions get asked of them repeatedly.

Interesting read for all those who continually promote the notions Thais are selfish and only care about themselves when it comes to money ... http://unitedexplana...-world-in-2011/

Not quite NIsa.