Thailand tourism feeling the pressure after blast

BANGKOK — Thailand’s worst-ever bombing has caused a 17 per cent fall in tourist arrivals, putting pressure on revenues vital to the military government’s moves to resuscitate a struggling economy.

Average daily arrivals to Thailand fell from 85,000 before the deadly Aug 17 attack to 70,000 at present, the tourism ministry said yesterday, but officials were confident the slump was temporary and said annual targets remained unchanged.

“The tourism impact ... will probably be a short-term impact,” Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul told a news conference yesterday.

“Tourism will definitely pick up in the fourth quarter,” she said.

Fourteen foreigners, including six from mainland China and Hong Kong, and one Singaporean — 34-year-old Melisa Liu Rui Chun — were among the 20 people killed in the attack at a famous religious shrine in Bangkok’s commercial heart, for which the key suspect remains at large.

The government is aiming for 28.8 million arrivals and 2.2 trillion baht (S$86.6 billion) in revenue this year from tourism, which has become even more crucial as South-east Asia’s second-biggest economy stutters amid weak exports, manufacturing and retail spending.

The national planning agency has revised down its annual economic growth forecast to 2.7-3.2 per cent this year, although experts say that is unrealistic. Growth was just 0.4 per cent in April-June from the previous quarter.

With a draw of top-class beaches, food and entertainment, Thailand’s tourism makes up about 10 per cent of GDP.

The kingdom had 2.1 million visitors from Aug 1 to Aug 23, a 31.7 per cent rise from the same period last year, generating 102.8 billion baht, the ministry said. Arrivals from Jan 1 to Aug 23, were 19.6 million, also a 31 per cent year-on-year increase.

President of the World Travel and Tourism Council David Scowsill said tourists jitters would not last.

“Thailand is not going to go through massive levels of trauma,” he said. “When we look out at the next six months, there’s no indication of wholesale cancellations.”

Conferences and meetings, which are key revenue earners, had not been seriously impacted, the Thai tourism ministry said.

Thailand Incentive and Convention Association President Sumate Sudasna said most large events had gone ahead, including an international surgery congress in Bangkok, at which only 100 of the 2,600 participants had cancelled.

“It’s business as usual for Thailand,” he added.

But data from ForwardKeys, which tracks more than 14 million travel bookings a day, suggests otherwise.

Its data for the five days after the bombing compared to the same period last year showed net bookings to Thailand as down 65 per cent and business travel from China tanking by 350 per cent.

That would indicate that 2.5 times more Chinese business trips were cancelled during that period this year than were booked a year ago.

ForwardKeys states any fall above 100 per cent reflects net cancellations.