Thailand's Tourism Suffering After Airport Siege
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
The occupation of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport ended without violence. Thousands of tourists were stranded in the country for a week, while others scrambled to find flights out of the country at secondary airports.
Thailand has weathered such storms before. The instances of military coups and politically charged demonstrations have been numerous. However, most have not turned violent (though recent isolated clashes have led to fatalities amongst the Thai population). Tourism is a huge earner in The Land of Smiles. Until now, luckily, it has not been hampered much by the demonstrations and political power changes.
But the recent shutdown of Suvarnabhumi Airport has had devastating short-term effects on the important industry. Hotels in Bangkok, and in other parts of the country, stand almost empty. If the trend continues, more that 100,000 hotel employees could lose their jobs in the coming year.
How bad is it? Hotels in Thailand are reporting occupancy rates of 20% to 30%. Many Bangkok hotels are reporting occupancy rates of 10% or less. That might be good news for adventurous travelers seeking a great deal on the a 4 or 5 star Bangkok hotel room, but for the hotels themselves, things couldn’t be worse. This is supposed to be the high season for Thailand. The coming holidays usually mean that resorts and hotels are filled to near capacity.
There is no telling when the tourism drought will end. Would-be travelers are, most likely, carefully watching to see how the current situation unfolds. Past protests have not seemed to dissuade people from visiting in the past. But the airport siege changed the nonchalant attitude most travelers previously adopted. Visions of passengers scrambling for the few available flights and sleeping on the floor at the airport were enough to cause some doubt among tourists. Future protests might be taken more seriously and might cause people to opt out of Thailand excursion in favor of more politically stable destinations.