Coup has short-term impact on Thai tourism

BANGKOK, Sep 22: The coup which ousted Thailand's elected government will hurt the country's lucrative tourist industry in the short term, but it should recover soon, the head of the travel agents association said.

''The cancellation rate is quite high after September 19 to the end of the month, especially from China and then Japan,'' Apichart Sankary, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told reporters yesterday.

''It's the high travel season for Chinese tourists at the moment, but chartered flights have been cancelled,'' he said.

Up to 90 per cent of trips from China had been cancelled and about 50 per cent from Japan, while hotel bookings were down 23 per cent in Bangkok for the rest of this month, he said.

''But I think the situation will improve if the coup can set up a government within two weeks, which will restore confidence, bringing tourists back to the country,'' Apichart said of the coup leader's promise to install a civilian prime minister.

One travel agent said about 60 per cent of his clients, mostly those due to visit Bangkok, had called off trips soon after the armed forces seized power in Tuesday's bloodless coup.

''But more than half of them came back and booked for the next few weeks,'' he said. The country expects nearly 14 million visitors this year, more than 1 million of them Japanese. Nearly 800,000 Chinese tourists visited last year.

The Japan Travel Bureau, Japan's largest travel agency, said it was cancelling some Bangkok-bound tours until September 26th, affecting nearly 1,000 people during one of its busier travel weeks.

''But from the people on our tours who are already in Bangkok, we aren't hearing reports that they're changing their itineraries and going to other places,'' a spokeswoman said.

A woman leaving for Thailand told NHK national television: ''Everything appears to be all right, and since I have my ticket already, I thought I'd go.

''BE CAREFUL''

Many governments have issued warnings to their citizens about travelling to Thailand, where tourism produces about 6 percent of gross national product and employs millions of people.

Most warned travellers to exercise caution, avoid large gatherings of people and stay away from government buildings, even though there was no sign of trouble.

Japan's Foreign Ministry raised its warning status for Bangkok to ''consider whether travel is really necessary'', the second-highest on its four-level system.

''Given the situation that has developed, we felt that this was necessary'' and no warnings had been issued for any other part of Thailand, a ministry official said.

But the coup should be a mere blip on the tourist screen, one travel agent said.

''It's really yesterday, when the news came out. When they saw tanks, they imagined things might be a bit different,'' said Roger Haumueller, deputy managing director of Asian Trails Ltd.

''After today, I don't expect any cancellations. There is no inconvenience at all for tourists in Bangkok,'' said Haumueller, a Swiss national who has worked at the agency for seven years.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, which hopes to draw 15 million tourists in 2007, up from 11.6 million in 2005, was also sanguine.

''Tourists are still coming here as there is no violence.

Airports and airlines are operating as usual,'' spokesman Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya said.

The coup came as the Thai tourist industry was just recovering from the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people, many of them foreign tourists during the height of the tourist season.

REUTERS

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