Hotels and tour operators in Thailand have called on the government to urgently solve the problem of crime and illegal arms trafficking. Otherwise, the kingdom’s tourism will be endangered, although it has already felt the first losses from banditry.
This time, the generator of this scandal was not Russians, but Chinese tourists – after the shooting incident in the resort province of Chiang Mai, mass cancellations of bookings for tours to Thailand from the Middle East began, and the Chinese are the main tourists in the Kingdom, and also the biggest spenders, which is especially valuable.
According to the Thai publication Thaiger, the reason for this is the incident with the shooting in the Siam Paragon shopping center, which happened on October 3. Then, as a result of the incident, three people died, but the main thing is that among them there was a “Chinese tourist who “got caught in the handout”, and four more were injured. This shook the confidence of Chinese travelers in Thailand and the consequences scared Thai business.
As a result of the incident, about 60,000 Chinese tourists canceled their trips to the country. Data from Thailand’s airports showed a drop in Chinese visitors from 650,000 to 590,000, a 9.2% decline.
According to Chutidech Promkaengarm, assistant manager of Standard Tour Co Ltd, a leading tour operator in the northern region, there is a “temporary impact on the confidence of tourists due to the shooting incident”. “Although not all bookings from Chinese tour groups have been canceled, many have postponed their trips. Some Chinese netizens expressed their reluctance to visit a country where gun ownership is not illegal,” he added.
This assessment was supported by Paysarn Sukcharoen, president of the Northern Thailand Hotel Association. According to his estimates, more than 30% of hotel reservations were postponed immediately after the incident. “Government measures to control firearms can help restore trust,” he added.