Bangkok blast strikes blow to tourism, pillar of ailing Thai economy

[swampdonkey]

Not being a drinker and on a rare night out with a friend visiting....120 Baht for a small Heinekin in a skanky 2 up 2 down townhouse maskerading as a bar with a few girls that are only interested in faceache and line...is it any wonder tourism is down...too expensive and moody rude people everywhere..the bombs are the icing on the cake.

You should pick better entertainment venues

I'm on my way now to my local a pint of carlsberg 99 baht

I can assure you that at 9.30 pm it will be standing room only

[ravip]

Not being a drinker and on a rare night out with a friend visiting....120 Baht for a small Heinekin in a skanky 2 up 2 down townhouse maskerading as a bar with a few girls that are only interested in faceache and line...is it any wonder tourism is down...too expensive and moody rude people everywhere..the bombs are the icing on the cake.

My deepest sympathies to you.

You are here suffering so much, I guess you originate from a worse place!

Karma, it is called!

[stickylies]

Noting that this attack was at Erawan, not Soi Cowboy, maybe it's aimed primarily at Chinese tourists, not Western tourists. Possibly some strain of Thai nationalist anti-Chinese tourists? Admittedly seems far-fetched, given the amount of Chinese blood in Thais, but this is a new age.

if chinese were targetted chinese intelligence will do their job. however i don't think this was anti-chinese as there are many better places to target them (eg. chiang mai). for me this attack looks like "strategy of tension" action by some local group. extreme left or extreme right but def not religious extremism. will we ever know? fact is the culprits didn't blow that (powerful) bomb in KSR which would have caused many more victims. in other words, their aim was not to make highest damage....... but maybe (simply) showing (to the public) the junta cannot garantee safety/peace/stability. fact is that the junta has no clue sofar (publicly) who did it.

Edited August 20, 2015 by stickylies

[elliss]

And in other threads they are stating no impact on tourism..

Quite right no impact, as Sex tourists use adequate protection methods .

[cumgranosalum]

tourism is 10% of the Thai economy - or thereabouts - whereas this is much bigger than most countries it is NOT the only string in their bow.

Unfortunately under the current regime the rest of the economy is floundering, so this is a shot at the last remaining "glittering" part of the Thai economy.

Yes, don't forget rubber, rice and hard drives ..............

Who is forgetting them?

[elliss]

looking for motives?

find out who will take advantage of a worsening economic situation in the country

Can we eliminate farlangs from the list , as the baht weakens.

Then we are left with , give us a clue please.

If nothing changes , things will remain the same .

[cumgranosalum]

anyone with a modicum of common sense will know how unreliable video is as evidence.........you simply don't know what you are looking at....everyone was determined to make an interpretation form the CCTV that implicates to 2 guys standing in front of the guy with the rucksack.....now we know that was rubbish......we also know that the "rucksack" guy wasn't the Australian model.....it would be nice if someone......just someone did some serious investigation or deduction rather than this hysterical gossip factory that has everyone running round like headless chickens....

Meanwhile the BBC are finding shrapnel from the bomb that has been ignored or left undiscovered by the police, apparently in their haste to clean up the site and do what they do best"get everything back as it was"

Don't they rea;ise that their actions will do more to damage tourism than the bomb itself.

Edited August 20, 2015 by cumgranosalum

[copa8]

Noting that this attack was at Erawan, not Soi Cowboy, maybe it's aimed primarily at Chinese tourists, not Western tourists. Possibly some strain of Thai nationalist anti-Chinese tourists? Admittedly seems far-fetched, given the amount of Chinese blood in Thais, but this is a new age.

It doesn't seem far-fetched, since it is far-fetched.

Regular Western tourists don't usually go to Soi Cowboy. Only sexpats and sex tourists.

[mojorison]

Why is this mythological tourist hub at the heart of everything Thai? The economy is in free-fall, tourism may or may not be in free-fall... who knows. The Chinese and even the Russians even hate Thailand now... a country (if you can call it that with NO friends). But the relevance of the Erawan incident and Thai tourism is nonsense. As is the link between the Erawan bombing and the economy. These connections simply are not real. They exist in the strategic planning (albeit relatively naive planning) of the junta people and ruling whatever you call them so they can formulate a rationale for committing what generally would be considered irrational, ill-advised and poorly thought out actions (always with the intention of increasing their lot). These events are like the general's get out of jail free card. This is not conspiracy. This modis operendi can be traced over the years. They are out of the dictators hand book. These events occur repeatedly to deflect, shed responsibility, or to manipulate public opinion. Prayut is a minion, and serves a much grander infrastructure. These "tenuous" links to everybody under the sun are simply laughable, and the international community will not be watching as he bumbles through his Friday night address to the nation I am not a biblical person, but I may assure you in this, the meek will inherit the earth. Or at least BKK.

[samjaidee]

So are tourists cancelling in droves, or not?

Yes

[cumgranosalum]

So are tourists cancelling in droves, or not?

Yes

So far I have 2 friends who are by-passing Bangkok and another bypassing Thailand at least for a few months...there will be knock-on effects.....

[fish fingers]

Bangkok is probably the most materialist city in SE asia, so I'm curious to see what happens in a few yrs if the economy really nosedives and the young can't afford their iPhones and handbags.

Rather than poor Issan rurals, I can envisage alot of smart looking Bangkok ladies(and men) turning to the 'dark side' to pay for their material goods and loans/credit cards.

Edited August 20, 2015 by fish fingers

[sean in udon]

anyone with a modicum of common sense will know how unreliable video is as evidence.........you simply don't know what you are looking at....everyone was determined to make an interpretation form the CCTV that implicates to 2 guys standing in front of the guy with the rucksack.....now we know that was rubbish......we also know that the "rucksack" guy wasn't the Australian model.....it would be nice if someone......just someone did some serious investigation or deduction rather than this hysterical gossip factory that has everyone running round like headless chickens....

Meanwhile the BBC are finding shrapnel from the bomb that has been ignored or left undiscovered by the police, apparently in their haste to clean up the site and do what they do best"get everything back as it was"

Don't they rea;ise that their actions will do more to damage tourism than the bomb itself.

Having read this, did a quick search and found a video clip http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34006372

Watch it to the end (it's just over a minute long).

Perhaps it was a language barrier problem?

[tropo]

Meanwhile tourism will no doubt recover on the back of a dropping baht, maybe too late for the forthcoming high season but blow over it will as it also recovered after the red rioting and attempted burn down of BKK in 2010

LOL. Let's pack out bags and go to Thailand. We're getting just a fraction over 0.33 baht per USD. Wow!

The USD actually gained more than a full baht in the month before the bomb attack. It gained more just between August 10 and 12 that it did since the bomb attack.

People are blowing things way out of proportion.

[arrowsdawdle]

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha called the bombing "the worst incident" to ever hit the country, saying, "this time they aimed for innocent lives. They want to destroy our economy, our tourism."

You already did that your self with your greed and non safety .... You made the bed, now lie in it ...

Never mind greed and non safety, live fire zones in May 2010 and the massacre of students on 6 October 1976 come to mind as government elite sponsored attacks on Thai citizens that far exceed the egregious nature of a random pipe bomb.

[hawker9000]

The Chinese ... $155 per day ... "more than most other nationalities" ... I just don't believe it.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

The Chinese ... $155 per day ... "more than most other nationalities" ... I just don't believe it.

I believe it. Given how high 'shopping' is on the agenda of our Chinese guests.

You may be thinking of some tour group cattle of some years back in places like Pattaya.

That's not what I'm seeing in Chiang Mai for example. Mostly independent tourists (families, groups of friends) and quite well off.

[SPB65]

The bombing is a heinous crime. But lets also consider this. How many more foreigners die from vehicular accidents in Thailand? That figure in itself should make the foreign tourist shudder... but they still come.

There are on average 80 road deaths per day in Thailand. The UK averages 5 per day to put that into even more perspective. The terrorist attack is horrendous but can happen anywhere. 80 road deaths per day is preventable and inexcusable in this day and age. When will Thais and Thailand ever wake up, grow up and find the will to prevent needless deaths ?

[cumgranosalum]

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha called the bombing "the worst incident" to ever hit the country, saying, "this time they aimed for innocent lives. They want to destroy our economy, our tourism."

You already did that your self with your greed and non safety .... You made the bed, now lie in it ...

Grossly unfair post.

Under the junta ALL aspects of the economy are slowing...tourism is the last sector...

[jerojero]

5500 baht more daily than other tourists? Hogwash!

[AZBill]

I wouldn't let anything like this change my plans. No way you let the terrorists win.

[Guest]

I wouldn't let anything like this change my plans. No way you let the terrorists win.

This is probably ... literally true .. would not change your PLANS.

Willing to bet a tidy sum, unlike me and my peers . YOUR plans do not include living and working in the BKK Central Business District in constant contact with what can only be described as the "top ten list of likely targets" ... certain BTS stops, infamous intersections for protests (and now ... bombings), globally known shopping malls and business addresses .. etc.

Duly noted Bill, more tough talk from a keyboard warrior who is probably not even in the Kingdom today, and certainly not Bangkok.

How do I know this?

Because if you were, the correct sentence and verb tense would be "has not changed my plans"

So, sir, happily tucked away from from the fray, might those of us under the gun having to make the tough decisions about where to go today to get done, what must get done .. who now scour every inch of the BTS, the pinch points and most crowded areas, who no long insist on the best dinner tables sitting by huge plate glass windows ...

May we respectfully ask you to shut your pie hole and save the keyboard heroics for another day?

Thank You.

[kiwikeith]

looking for motives?

find out who will take advantage of a worsening economic situation in the country

Check out the stock exchange see who was trading on the Thai Bht to fall before the bomb went off, this happened b4 9 11.

[ToS2014]

I just wonder how they can peg 5.5K THB to daily Chinese tourist spending? IMHO the average Chinese spends less, far less than that. I do know for a fact that I spend, on average, around 100K a month. Perhaps the tourism office employees individuals to follow every single tourist to monitor spending. In the mean time, I'm sure as I work down the news articles for today I will run across an official government article that postulates tourism isn't effected.

[Straight8]

Just as risky visiting London, New York, or any big city really. I won't be cancelling my trip to Thailand, I won't give it a second thought. You can't spend your life in fear,

I mean with literally hundreds of cities and tourist places around the world that have never had a bomb attack, people are still choosing tp still come to Thailand after this attack, seriously??

That could have been anyone of us walking past that shrine. Can the authorities guarantee us this won't happen again??

BKK's image of safety has now been severely tarnished and I'd say the family tourists (especially those with kids) will be avoiding this place like the plague. As for the diehards, nothing is going to stop them from getting their yearly ,bi-yearly or quarterly dose of Nana and cowboy!!!

[Straight8]

The Chinese ... $155 per day ... "more than most other nationalities" ... I just don't believe it.

I believe it. Given how high 'shopping' is on the agenda of our Chinese guests.

Really, what is it in Thailand that you can get cheaper than you can in China??

[Colabamumbai]

The Chinese ... $155 per day ... "more than most other nationalities" ... I just don't believe it.

I believe it. Given how high 'shopping' is on the agenda of our Chinese guests.

Really, what is it in Thailand that you can get cheaper than you can in China??

Nothing, it all comes from China.

[elliss]

I wouldn't let anything like this change my plans. No way you let the terrorists win.

Aggree, however , i would not want my kids from back home to visit Thailand ,

not for a while .

[elgordo38]

What really filled me with confidence was when a BBC reporter goes to the explosion site and picks up bomb fragments consisting of pellets and a large piece which could have been part of the pipe. These were imbedded in a wall some 50 metres from the explosion. He took his findings to police headquarters and was challenged by 2 or 3 what looked like young boys in uniforms. He had his findings wrapped in cloth and unwrapped them and showed them to the young lads and explained that they were bomb fragments. They looked at him quizzically and at the parts and told him to come back later as there was no one there. Dah the lights are on but nobody is home. You would think that at the very least one of them would reach his hand out and take this possible crucial evidence. If they find the perpetrators it will be shear luck not outstanding police work.

[UTH001]

So are tourists cancelling in droves, or not?

Yes

Arrived this morning at 1am at Suvarnabhumi, lots of Chinese tourists everywhere. First Immigration area full, we were directed to the second Immigration area (first time for me there), also quite a few people waiting to get processed.

I am sure there are cancellations but 'in droves', don't really know...