Many blame travel advisories from foreign embassies – and often rightfully so. BUT, hotels and resorts have done a poor job in communicating with tour agencies, media and their guests. Calls from media organizations have very often gone unanswered, or in some cases been met with blatant lies that the occupancy levels are “well above 70 percent”, as a manager was quoted in a German newspaper over the weekend.
Visiting 10-15 hotel web sites in the region shows that very few are keeping potential visitors up to date. What potential visitors need right now is truthful and factual information. Some hotels and resorts are using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. This is a step in the right direction, but more is needed.
Fortunately, that is not difficult. The Andaman Coast of Thailand is one of the safest travel destinations in the world. Locals still take great pride in offering the best the region has to offer, top-notch hospitality, food and services that many other destinations strive to match. Let the word out – don’t hide it.
47 embassies issued travel warnings for Thailand in April and May. Many of these warnings are still in place. Ths United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs still states as of May 25 that “U.S. citizens should defer all travel to Bangkok and defer all non-essential travel to the rest of Thailand”.
The Australian embassy advises “you to reconsider your need to travel to Thailand due to the risk of ongoing civil unrest and sporadic violence”.
European embassies are taking a much more professional approach to the unrest in Bangkok
over the last weeks. The Norwegian and Swedish embassies recommends non-essential visits to Bangkok as well as Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla. Its ambassador has participated in a number of online events with newspapers in Norway and has stated that the beach and resorts areas in the south have not been affected by the unrest.
Honorary consuls and expatriates should make an effort to inform embassies and media in their home countries of the actual situation. We have received 12-15 calls and emails from foreign media the last few weeks – asking how the situation is in Phuket/Krabi. We have been pleased to tell them that the situation is normal – maybe more so than it was a year ago when the swine flu hysteria hit Thailand.
This is a critical period for the region. The Andaman coast has not been immune from what has happened in Bangkok and there are still huge wounds in the Thai society that needs to be rehabilitated. This process will hopefully go underway soon.
The financial turmoil in Europe will create new challenges for the region. Europeans are making plans right now for Christmas and what is traditionally the high season here. The Euro and most other European currencies have weakened the last two months. This mean it will become more expensive to spend time in Thailand.
| Currency | 01-Jan-10 | 25-May-10 | Change |
| 100 Danish kroner | 615.19 | 518.49 | -15.7% |
| 1 Euro | 45.77 | 38.59 | -15.7% |
| 100 Norwegian kroner | 550.66 | 477.81 | -13.2% |
| 1 British pound | 51.38 | 44.84 | -12.7% |
| 100 Swedish krona | 446.14 | 395.11 | -11.4% |
| 1 Australian dollar | 28.59 | 25.79 | -9.8% |
| 1000 Korean won | 27.04 | 25.38 | -6.1% |
| 100 Hong Kong dollar | 410.86 | 398.25 | -3.1% |
| 100 Chinese yuan | 466.56 | 454.97 | -2.5% |
| 1 US Dollars | 31.86 | 31.56 | -1.0% |
| 100 Japanese yen | 34.41 | 34.44 | 0.1% |
Travelers with Euro or Scandinavian kronor in their bank accounts will get 13-16 percent less Thai Baht today than they did around Christmas. This is real money – and a real challenge for the tourism sector.
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