'Seize Bangkok' campaign ends joy over hitting 2013 tourism projection

[webfact]

TOURISM
'Seize Bangkok' campaign ends joy over hitting 2013 projection
BAMRUNG AMNATCHAROENRIT
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Over New Year's, tourism operators rejoiced in hitting projections for 2013, but their holiday cheer seemed to evaporate when they found out that protesters have embarked on a "seize the capital" campaign.

"Luckily, the political demonstrations have not chosen the way of violence," Supawan Tanomkieatipume, chairwoman for public relations at the Thai Hotels Association, said yesterday.

The People's Democratic Reform Committee's plan to shut down Bangkok on January 13 is expected to hurt the city's image as a prime tourist destination. Both local and foreign visitors will be inconvenienced as they try to visit tourist attractions and could also worry that they are in personal danger.

The impacts will continue through Chinese New Year on January 31, which is still the high season. The tourism industry has already started seeing warning signs of charter-flight cancellations, especially from China and Russia.

If this trend continues, it's high likely that hotel occupancy in Bangkok will drop 30-40 percentage points at a time when normally rooms are full.

Paul Stevens, director of operations for Accor Thailand, expressed concern about the political chaos. However, the company's Novotel and Ibis hotels in the downtown area are doing quite well.

For this month, room bookings have slowed down a bit because of the unstable political situation late last year.

"We hope that the situation remains peaceful so that tourist arrivals can stay on track in 2014," he said.

Sugree Sithivanich, deputy governor for marketing communications at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said his agency had kept a close watch on the political scene. TAT is evaluating various scenarios in case of political disaster, for their ramifications for both foreign-tourist numbers as well as revenue.

This year, TAT targets foreign tourist arrivals increasing 7.28 per cent to 28.01 million and tourism revenue 12.91 per cent to Bt1.33 trillion.

Yutthachai Soonthronrattanavate, president of the Association of Domestic Travel, said it was hard to tell how such political turmoil would end. However, what is sure is that its continuation will squeeze the tourism industry and also the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) business.

The study tours of schools coming to Bangkok are victims of the unrest, while event organisers are waiting to see what develops.

"Tourism sentiment is not good at present. Everybody has kept their attention on politics. In Bangkok, if the capital is seized by the PDRC as announced, travel barriers in Bangkok will get more serious," he said.

For example, big corporations in the automobile industry in Bangkok are on high alert, which reflects their uncertainty over the situation in the capital. They have asked for employees at the managerial level to work at showrooms more strictly, as an urgent case, in order to save its operations from an uncontrolled turnout, he said.

Overall, the flow of foreign tourists into Thailand is still good, Yutthachai said. If the situation ends soon, there will be no need to change the industry's estimates for the whole year.

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau has confirmed that the political chaos has pinched the MICE business in the country this quarter.

Apparently, the cloudy situation prevents MICE operators having enough confidence to plan anything, especially inviting participants.

Safety is the key concern for this business because insurance will not cover situations caused by political conflict, he said.


-- The Nation 2014-01-03

[CelticBhoy]

Don't panic. Arisman will fly in millions of

Chinese soon to stick the numbers up.

[EyesWideOpen]

Will be curious to see how TAT spins this.... :-)

[noitom]

Will be curious to see how TAT spins this.... :-)

You know how they'll spin it. They'll make a nonsensical news release with a whole bunch of double talked "facts" and misrepresentations. Then the newspaper will take whatever they say at face value.

[Yunla]

It is always the small businesses that suffer from the dropping numbers of 'family tourism' to Thailand. Families who come here will spend big on 'nostalgia items' and traditional Thai gifts to take home as memories of their happy family holiday in exotic Thailand. These tourists will sometimes only visit once, or only occasionally, but will spend big while they are here in the smaller 'authentic' Thai shops and stalls, will generally tip big and go out of their way to be polite and try to be respectful as honoured guests to the nation, if only as an example to their children. These are the model tourists that are discouraged by coups and revolts and blood in the streets.

This is 'direct income' from abroad, which goes straight to the common small business. It is important to understand the amount of direct income that working-class Thais receive from selling traditional nostalgia items to the family-tourist market, or of organising tours to see historic Thai locations. This is a lifeblood for many small businesses, and to decimate tourism, or to replace it with tourists who do not have any interest in the traditonal shops etc. would be very harmful to a lot of working-class Thai families, but it doesn't really show up on the radar which is related to hotels and flights etc.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Yunla

[Prbkk]

yes, well...pity those people whose livelihood depends on tourism/hospitailty, eg, the cooks, cleaners, front desk, small business owners, taxis. They can go to hell while the mob parades through the streets and leads to a shut down? many of these people need to work in order to live...no tourists, no job, no money.

[oldthaihand99]

Don't worry, "V Day, take 9" is a sure thing. Promise. Would i lie?

Why not join in the "let's shoot ourselves in the foot, BKK" protests & let your businesses rot even more?

Edited January 3, 2014 by oldthaihand99

[trogers]

Don't panic. Arisman will fly in millions of

Chinese soon to stick the numbers up.

Arisman is just a political opportunist with very poor economic and investment vision. Then again, he may just be a puppet for someone else...the same guy with high vision for the rice pledging scam...

Time to invest in billions on the Chinese market? Political unrest discouraging Chinese tourists?

Here is the reason why there is a drastic fall in number of chinese tourists:

China’s Banks: Short of Money and Full of Debt

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/428246-chinas-banks-short-of-money-and-full-of-debt/

Edited January 3, 2014 by trogers

[Tatsujin]

yes, well...pity those people whose livelihood depends on tourism/hospitailty, eg, the cooks, cleaners, front desk, small business owners, taxis. They can go to hell while the mob parades through the streets and leads to a shut down? many of these people need to work in order to live...no tourists, no job, no money.

Yeah, it's deja vu all over again 2010 style. At least this time there's been no threats/promises to burn Bangkok down . . . yet

Edited January 3, 2014 by Tatsujin

[webfact]

Related:

Tourism ministry expects 10-12% drop in foreign tourists this year

Full story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/693790-thai-tourism-ministry-expects-10-12-drop-in-foreign-tourists-in-2014/

[AloisAmrein]

TAT: increased numbers of tourists... of course, many use Thailand now as transit country only, as I do. Malaysia, 10 days Thailand, Laos, 2 days Thailand, Laos, 3 days Thailand, all visa-exempt entry, same for Laos. So already 3 more tourists in the TAT statistic.

[Ulic]

Tourists have short memories. With the baht falling and and the political unrest

coming to a head, things will be back to normal within a couple of months. As long as

Suthep does not close the airport again everything will be fine. The dire predictions are

just hyperbole.

[Khun Robert]

How to increase the numbers:

The study tours of schools coming to Bangkok.

Here in Krabi we have almost daily buses full with school children visiting Fossil Shell beach. Let's count them in. During the typing 3 buses passed by, so another minimum of 150 Tourists in our small town.

​ Unfortunately the do not spend any money..