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

[JAG]

I suppose it would be too much to hope that perhaps with numbers of tourists dwindling that maybe, just maybe, immigration might be a bit more user friendly for expats....

I doubt it, with fewer tourists to bother them they will have more time to erect more hoops for you to chamber through!

[lostoday]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The whole thing pales in comparison with closing the airport for a couple of weeks. Since the majority of tourists arrive by air that was really the big bang in the tourist bubble bursting and it that didn't bother the powers that be why would a small explosion?

[thaibeachlovers]

23 countries have now given travel warnings to anyone traveling to Thailand the Thais dont care much for safety a prime example is the underground if someone carrying a bag triggers the alarm its just one glimpse into a dark bag and on your way now they might think about tipping out the bag and look for the item that set of the alarm everyone is happy enough to wait a couple of minutes and knowing they are safe by this process, and if people are in such a hurry as not to have time for a proper safety check they would have left earlier. many people with a family will now be heading to a safer country for a holiday Vietnam or her neighbours if its an Asian holiday planned.

Seriously?

Have you seen how many people go into the underground at Asoke? Given the alarm goes off for almost everyone it would lead to long delays if they checked everyone properly. However, considering that many people are only traversing the street by going underground, the Asoke bag check is in the wrong place and should be nearer the ticket office.

[thaibeachlovers]

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!!!

Despite the hysteria, the risk of getting injured/ killed by a bomb in LOS is infitisimal. In Iraq where there is a high risk, they still go to the markets etc.

If I were coming to LOS to visit Nana, one serious bomb in Bkk wouldn't give me a second's pause, just as it won't when I go to Bkk in a few weeks time. In fact, I shall pass by the shrine to have a gander at it. More chance of getting killed in the bus on the way down to Bkk.

[thaibeachlovers]

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.

My experience of "almost" getting blown up by a "Muslim terrorist" on the London tube was a bit traumatic.

On an almost deserted tube carriage and a Muslim woman was standing by a large suitcase by the door. The train stopped and she got off, leaving the bag behind. Door closed and off we went, NO ONE sitting beside the suitcase. I really thought that was it and the bag was a bomb. Turned out the bag belonged to someone sitting WAAAAAY down the carriage, but I was a bit nervous after that. Not for nothing do they ask everyone to keep their luggage with them.

Didn't stop me travelling on the tube though.

Off topic I know, but now I know what it feels like to believe that your last moments have come due to a terrorist bomb.

[BSJ]

I see a conflict in the information presented today and the information presented the day after the bombing....one of these stories is wrong!

[EnglishJohn]

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.

"who no long insist on the best dinner tables sitting by huge plate glass windows ..."

You go into a restaurant and insist on the best table ?. Maybe you should shut your pie hole. Clearly one of Bangkok's totally self-centered millions. I was so glad to get out of there.

Like he said don't give in to the terrorists. Even if you're scared, hold your head up and tell the scum to go to hell. And remember the odds of it being you next are actually very very small.

Like they say, freedom is not free.

[Peterbkk7]

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.

This is exactly what i was thinking.

But this is so typical here. Not surprised at all.

[cumgranosalum]

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.

"who no long insist on the best dinner tables sitting by huge plate glass windows ..."

You go into a restaurant and insist on the best table ?. Maybe you should shut your pie hole. Clearly one of Bangkok's totally self-centered millions. I was so glad to get out of there.

Like he said don't give in to the terrorists. Even if you're scared, hold your head up and tell the scum to go to hell. And remember the odds of it being you next are actually very very small.

Like they say, freedom is not free.

but stupidity is....

[cumgranosalum]

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

Just working on a "daily" figure may not give an accurate picture...

Chinese buy package holidays that last for relatively short periods - they are bussed from point to point and encouraged to spend.

"western" style tourists stay much longer are more careful with there money and require such things as double or twin rooms - not communal, eco-friendly holidays...in the end they probably spend more and do more for the local economy in the long run

PS - sex-pats and sex-tourists are usually ignorant ego-centric fools who grossly over-estimate their own contribution to the tourist industry........let them drown in their own Changs outside the 7/11.

Edited August 22, 2015 by cumgranosalum

[hawker9000]

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...

'No idea how hard it might be for all those Chinese on their package tours to cancel at the last minute (and get any money back). Give it a few weeks at least and then see what's what.

But short memories are the rule rather than the exception everywhere. So if there are no more incidents or any "side-effects" (e.g., reimposition of curfews), the Erawan bombing may actually only have limited long-term impact. ('Course China has economic "issues" at the moment which seem likely to have more lasting impact on tourist travel than this bombing in the first place ...)

[elliss]

This is just another nail in the coffin of tourism...the Thai economy in on life-support...tourist or lack of tourist will make little difference...it is all downhill until they work out their political and economic destiny...IMHO

It all depends on ,

was the bombing incident a one off , or is it the shape of things to come,

in which case , watch this space.

[coulson]

Tourism accounts for 9% of the Thai economy ???????

Wasn't it always 2-3% in the past?

I think the former is TAT's forecast, whereas the latter is the actual.......

[thaibeachlovers]

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.

"who no long insist on the best dinner tables sitting by huge plate glass windows ..."

You go into a restaurant and insist on the best table ?. Maybe you should shut your pie hole. Clearly one of Bangkok's totally self-centered millions. I was so glad to get out of there.

Like he said don't give in to the terrorists. Even if you're scared, hold your head up and tell the scum to go to hell. And remember the odds of it being you next are actually very very small.

Like they say, freedom is not free.

There is far, far more chance of dying on Thailand roads than being blown up, but I'll warrent it doesn't stop one single person on this thread from going on those very roads.