Effects of Paris attacks being felt globally as Thais hold their breath

[webfact]

Effects of Paris attacks being felt globally as Thais hold their breath
SUCHEERA PINIJPARAKARN,
ERICH PARPART,
SUCHAT SRITAMA
THE NATION, AGENCIES

BANGKOK: -- AIRLINES, STOCKS, and currencies are among the casualties of last Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris as Asian markets mostly fell yesterday - but the impact on the global economy and Thai tourism sector is expected to be short-lived.

"The attacks have hit tourists' confidence, but this should be short-term, while the number of foreign visitors coming to Thailand will be minimally affected," said Porametee Vimolsiri, secretary general of National Economic and Social Development Board.

The NESDB forecast of tourist arrivals next year has remained unchanged at 32.5 million, compared to this year's 30 million.

The NESDB chief said governments in many countries, including Thailand, had already stepped up security precautions following the Paris attacks to reassure foreign visitors of their safety.

He said the effects on the Thai tourism sector would likely be similar to what happened after the recent Erawan Shrine bombing.

Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Minister of Tourism and Sports, said police, immigration and other agencies charged with protecting tourists' safety had stepped up measures aimed at doing that.

However, Mario Hardy, chief executive officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said: "We do know that the impact on travel will be high following the incident. Travellers who typically have trips planned to destinations for the coming weeks and months will likely wait and see if the situation is under control before cancelling their trips."

Hardy said no destination was immune from this type of situation, adding that no one would have thought a few months ago that a tourist hotspot such as Bangkok would have been targeted by terrorists.

"We could not and should not stop from travelling. That would be giving in to these acts of terror, which is exactly what they are hoping for. There are over 1.2 billion travellers a year crossing borders and only a very small percentage gets affected by such incidents," he said.

Albert Tjoeng, the International Air Travel Association's assistant director for corporate communications in Asia Pacific, said it was premature to talk about the possible impact from the Paris attacks on air travel.

As for financial markets yesterday, the euro tumbled on security fears in Europe and the resulting effect on the struggling Eurozone economy, adding to uncertainty in already nervous markets, which ended last week on a low owing to increased worry about the global economy.

While losses rippled across Asian stock markets yesterday, airlines were among the worst hit and regional stock indexes were also mostly lower.

Hong Kong was down 1.6 per cent yesterday afternoon, Tokyo fell more than 1 per cent and Sydney gave up 0.9 per cent. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong shed 1.7 per cent.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand Index was down 0.93 per cent in morning trading before rebounding to close at 1,388.6 - a gain of 0.45 per cent with turnover of Bt35 billion.

Japan Airlines sank almost 3 per cent and rival ANA was 3.5 per cent down, while in Sydney Virgin Australia plunged 6.5 per cent. Indonesian flag carrier Garuda fell 1.3 per cent.

In Shanghai there was big selling in China Eastern Airlines, Air China and China Southern Airlines, while tourist firms also retreated - China CYTS Tours Holding and China International Travel Service were both down more than 1 per cent.

The Thai General Insurance Association said the attacks could indirectly affect the insurance industry due to negative impacts on the trade and tourism sectors. but premiums for political violence insurance were expected to rise in a similar way to what occurred after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Effects-of-Paris-attacks-being-felt-globally-as-Th-30273097.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-17

[NongKhaiKid]

Thais hold their breath ? What drama.

Didn't take the article long to get into the tourism aspect and of course no impact on LoS.

Just love the deep heartfelt concern for the dead and injured in Paris.

[docshock13]

Well at least someone (Mario Hardy) has acknowledged that the Erawan Shrine bombings were terrorist attacks. But then again, he is a foreigner. What does he know?

[ezzra]

" AIRLINES, STOCKS, and currencies are among the casualties of last Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris as Asian markets mostly fell yesterday"

This is what the world is REALLY worried about, the effect on the economy, sod the victims, we hold our

breath what will happened to the economy...

[benalibina]

Well at least someone (Mario Hardy) has acknowledged that the Erawan Shrine bombings were terrorist attacks. But then again, he is a foreigner. What does he know?

Nothing.

[chainarong]

Holding your breath won't help, most Thai's are battling to survive so what happens in Paris ( Where ) is nothing to do with getting to a low paid job on a jammed up freeway , starting from home at 0430 , having said that Thai's are very well aware that the forgotten war in the South could escalate,( particularly if the isis start an education programme, the muderers know where the weak links are ) , into a national problem, how the Thai Administration handle that situation will dictate the response..................

Edited November 17, 2015 by chainarong

[godden]

Is it only here they weigh dead bodies by the $

[razer]

Tactical commando attacks by terrorists have proven very, very successful and will continue to do so.

It wouldn't take much for the Muslim non-terrorists in the south to hop in a pickup with their AKs and drive to Phuket or even Bangkok.

[The manic]

It is the promotion of multiculturalism and diversity in the west that has led us to this. It is unlikely to happen here in the same way. In the UK the union flag is banned on public buildings and never seen on mosques. M****ms are given preferential treatment such as with the closing of municipal swimming pools for exclusive use of m*****s on certain days. Shop workers can disrespect non m*****m customer by classifying them as 'dirty' by refusing to sell them wine or bacon. They can demand their own places of worship in shops such as IKEA which is not allowed for other religions. Freedom of speech has been cancelled as a British person can be arrested for telling the simple truth to a m****m such as : 'There is no such thing as god' heaven or hell or prophets or holy books. To upset a m****m is now a criminal offence in the UK. There are are 44 million m*****s in Europe - in the UK 2 to 4 million and increasing daily and they have been taught to have a sense of entitlement and the right to change western society into the image of the country they have come from. This is not the situation in Thailand.

Edited November 17, 2015 by The manic

[FredNL]

My wife's friend who is working for a travel agency had in total 18 cancelations, 4 no shows and several change of plans for flights to Paris since Saturday.

The Thai are shitting their pants.

Edited November 17, 2015 by FredNL

[i claudius]

I doubt if most Thais even know where Paris is ,much less that there was an attack there by suicide bombers .

[jalansanitwong]

I dont see any Thais holding their breathe. I doubt if more than 10% of Thais even know what Paris is.

Most Thais would struggle to find Thailand on a world map.

Tourism will do just fine this high season. Australian airlines are putting on more flights as are the Europeans.

Thailand is a cheap mass market tourist destination.

[elgordo38]

" AIRLINES, STOCKS, and currencies are among the casualties of last Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris as Asian markets mostly fell yesterday"

This is what the world is REALLY worried about, the effect on the economy, sod the victims, we hold our

breath what will happened to the economy...

Watch stock markets for what? After falling over 500 points in the previous 2 sessions the Dow climbed 237 points. Gold that harbinger of world wide problems barely budged at .40 cents. I was surprised that oil jumped.

[gandalf12]

Tactical commando attacks by terrorists have proven very, very successful and will continue to do so.

It wouldn't take much for the Muslim non-terrorists in the south to hop in a pickup with their AKs and drive to Phuket or even Bangkok.

Probably wouldnt need to bring their AK's considering the number of guns around they could probably buy them in Bangkok

[micmichd]

Anyone held his breath about the Beirut attacks shortly before those in Paris?

[baboon]

Thais hold their breath ? What drama.

Didn't take the article long to get into the tourism aspect and of course no impact on LoS.

Just love the deep heartfelt concern for the dead and injured in Paris.

I think you and I are neck and neck in the 'Thaivisa's most cynical poster' race...

[NongKhaiKid]

Thais hold their breath ? What drama.

Didn't take the article long to get into the tourism aspect and of course no impact on LoS.

Just love the deep heartfelt concern for the dead and injured in Paris.

I think you and I are neck and neck in the 'Thaivisa's most cynical poster' race...

Am fighting back the tears as that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me !

I rate it with my ex-wife's comment that I'd never suffer from heart problems as I didn't have one.

[kimamey]

It is the promotion of multiculturalism and diversity in the west that has led us to this. It is unlikely to happen here in the same way. In the UK the union flag is banned on public buildings and never seen on mosques. M****ms are given preferential treatment such as with the closing of municipal swimming pools for exclusive use of m*****s on certain days. Shop workers can disrespect non m*****m customer by classifying them as 'dirty' by refusing to sell them wine or bacon. They can demand their own places of worship in shops such as IKEA which is not allowed for other religions. Freedom of speech has been cancelled as a British person can be arrested for telling the simple truth to a m****m such as : 'There is no such thing as god' heaven or hell or prophets or holy books. To upset a m****m is now a criminal offence in the UK. There are are 44 million m*****s in Europe - in the UK 2 to 4 million and increasing daily and they have been taught to have a sense of entitlement and the right to change western society into the image of the country they have come from. This is not the situation in Thailand.

What a load of rubbish.

The union flag is not banned on public buildings. It's not been adopted in law as the national flag so it's technically the monarch's flag I believe and this means it's displayed differently than in other countries It is flown on certain days such as royal birthdays ect. There were plans to change this but lack of time prevented it but I think each department is able to make it's own decision.

I've never been into IKEA so I can't comment what is in there but even if they demand their own places of worship there's no obligation to provide it. I doubt many Christians would even ask.

There are laws regarding stiring up racial or religious hatred but stating your views on God is not a problem and I've done this myself. It's definately not a criminal offence to upset a Muslim. I work in the UK in an area which has large numbers of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims and there's very little trouble there unlike the mainly white area I used to live in where there were constant police raids for drugs and stolen goods.

Why can't you write 'Muslims'? It's not that difficult to spell.

As for holy books, of course there are. Why would you say there aren't when it's easy to see copies of the Bible and the Quran. Whether you believe in what they say is another matter.

The extremists in Islam are a minority and the moderates are now beginning, rather belatedly to speak out against them. Maybe they see the danger to themselves.

One thing I have noticed is there's quite rightly been a lot of support for France over the deaths there but much less for those mainly Russians killed in Egypt.

Maybe you're reading the Daily Mail too much.

Edited November 18, 2015 by kimamey

[SantiSuk]

'The manic' - London's correspondent on Fox News?

[newarrior]

Well at least someone (Mario Hardy) has acknowledged that the Erawan Shrine bombings were terrorist attacks. But then again, he is a foreigner. What does he know?

Bam right there more cyncism, sarcasm and negativity. Where is that coming from ? How does that benefit you to think and talk like that ? Is this sort of negative attitude helping you ?

[Jingthing]

Anyone held his breath about the Beirut attacks shortly before those in Paris?

No. Because it's in Lebanon. Right next to Syria. Right next to Daesh. DUH!

[NongKhaiKid]

Well at least someone (Mario Hardy) has acknowledged that the Erawan Shrine bombings were terrorist attacks. But then again, he is a foreigner. What does he know?

Bam right there more cyncism, sarcasm and negativity. Where is that coming from ? How does that benefit you to think and talk like that ? Is this sort of negative attitude helping you ?

He's only being accurate and we see and hear such things almost everyday.

Do you benefit from your pseudo - Thai attitude that everything is always well, nothing is wrong or goes wrong and if it does stick your head in the sand, ignore and deny ?