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12 Apr 2005

Tourism

Songkran, 2005: Thais on Overseas Trips, Capital Outflow of Bt6.8 Billion

คะแนนเฉลี่ย

Tourism in Thailand during the Songkran Festival of this year will be remarkably less active, given that the travel atmosphere within the country is not favorable, due to numerous risk factors since late last year. They include:
  1. Unrest in the three southernmost provinces;
  2. The Tsunami disaster on December 26, 2004, that devastated renowned tourist attractions along the Andaman coast, including those in Phuket, Phang-nga and Krabi;
  3. Surging oil prices that have affected travel-related expenses within the country, thus causing domestic package tours to be priced on a par or only slightly lower than those of short-haul overseas package tours;

- The powerful earthquake on March 28, 2005; and,

- The triple bomb blasts in Hat Yai and Songkhla's Muang District.

All the above incidents have not helped the moribund local tourism situation. As a result, many Thais have shifted their travel plans to overseas destinations. Major beneficiaries have been tourist attractions in the Asian region where rivalry is quite stiff in the aviation industry, making air tickets much cheaper.

KRC forecasts that during the long holiday of Songkran festival, this year, at least 150,000 Thai people will travel overseas, increasing from 2004 by 25 percent and inducing tourism expenses of around Baht6.8 Billion, which represents an increase of more than 30 percent over the preceding year.

The money of Baht6.8 Billion that is expected to flow out from Thailand during Songkran, this year, will mostly be generated at short-haul tourism destinations in Asia such as China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and such neighboring countries in Indochina as Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma.

For the trend in outbound tours over the remainder of 2005, KRC forecasts that if there is no further impact from serious incidents, for the entire year of 2005 there will be around 3.08 million Thai people traveling overseas, increasing from 2004 by 14.7 percent. In this number, only Thai people who are traveling for sightseeing overseas were considered, and excludes Thai laborers, so it is expected that around 2.95 million people will be traveling, and this will cause a capital outflow to overseas of around Baht77 Billion.

However, to slow the overseas traveling of Thais that is tending to grow steadily and maintain our reserves, related agencies ? both in the state and private sectors ? must have disaster warning systems for severe earthquakes at seaside tourism venues across the country, as well as stricter security measures against militants in the South, in order to ensure safety for Thai tourists.

Moreover, both the state and private sectors should cooperate to expedite campaigns and support domestic travel programs, particularly in arranging cheap domestic tour packages to be consistent with the present economy and stimulate more Thais to travel domestically. Apart from preserving capital domestically, it would also help to offset the sluggish market in foreign tourists during low tourist season.

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