reader Posted Monday at 10:43 AM Posted Monday at 10:43 AM NOTE -- The Thailand Hotel Association (THA) is always quick to predict gloom and doom whenever an occasion arises in hopes of winning political support. IMO, tourists aren't as fearful as the THA would have us believe. Buy if they are, hotels always have the option of cutting rates to attract more bookings. ============ From The Nation The earthquake last week is expected to cause Thailand’s tourism sector revenue to fall by 10-15% over the next two weeks, the Thai Hotels Association (THA) said on Monday. THA president Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun said that requests from tourists for early hotel checkouts surged by 8-10% nationwide after the earthquake, particularly in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Ayutthaya. Some tourists opted to change their destinations to Pattaya and Phuket instead, he said. The association anticipates that the incident will affect foreign tourists’ confidence in safety over the next two weeks, both for those who have booked travel but have yet to arrive and for those still deciding whether to travel, he added. He expects hotel and tourism business revenue to decline by at least 10-15%. “The association expects that the earthquake will have a lasting impact on the Songkran tourism atmosphere, making it more subdued than in the past two years. It is estimated that it will take a month to return to normal,” he said. Continues at https://www.nationthailand.com/business/economy/40048121 bkkmfj2648 1 Quote
