Tourists Enjoy 11-Degree Weather at Doi Inthanon in Chiang Mai

Tourists flocked to Chiang Mai’s Doi Inthanon, the country’s highest mountain, to feel the morning temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. While local officials predicted booming tourism in this tourist attraction this winter.

For this weekend visitors were impressed with the cold weather and the sea of mist in the Doi Inthanon National Park in Chom Thong district. Temperatures measured 10 degrees Celsius at the popular Kew Mae Pan viewpoint, 11 degrees Celsius on the mountaintop and lower at night.

Local officials expected booming tourism and extremely cold weather at the national park late this year.

They maintained COVID-19 control measures by checking the body temperatures of visitors, requiring tourists to observe social distancing and wear face masks and distributing hand gel sanitizer.

Chiang Mai’s Tourism Suffers Bt100 Billion Loss

The Chamber of Commerce has estimated that Chiang Mai’s tourism reliant economy has lost Bt100 billion this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The northern province in now pinning its hopes on government stimulus packages to salvage the ailing economy.

Varodom Pitakanonda, president of The Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce told the media Chiang Mai’s revenue fromtourist seriously contracted this year. Especially due to the stringent restrictions imposed to control the pandemic in Thailand and other countries.

During the first three quarters, private consumption fell markedly in line with the decreasing purchasing power, resulting in a Bt100 billion shortfall compared to 2019.

In addition, consumer confidence remains low while private investment has also continued to shrink, he said.

Spending dropped in all categories of products, especially in the service, commodities and automobiles sectors, with tourism being to slowest to begin to recover, he said. Without a second wave of Covid-19, the economy would recover faster, and “assistance from the government could help spur consumption”, he said.

Attracting domestic tourists to Chiang Mai

The Chamber of Commerce’s chairman expressed his confidence that the government’s job creation measures, such as the One University, One Tambon project would help cut unemployment among workers and new graduates.

In addition, Mr Varodom said the Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce has rolled out many projects to stimulate the province’s economy from the end of this year until 2021.

The first seeks to attract domestic tourists to Chiang Mai and neighbouring provinces with a goal of generating tourism revenue of around Bt70 billion.

Another targets long-stay medical-wellness tourism and aims to make use of the province’s specialized medical technology, international-standard hospitals and comprehensive wellness businesses to develop Chiang Mai into a “medicopolis” or a health city.

He told the Bangkok Post local businesses wanted the government to make two temporary Myanmar border pass sites — Kew Pha Wok, and Ban Lak Tang — into permanent checkpoints as their already brisk business activities have the potential to grow into significant revenue generators along the border.

The chamber of commerce’s president also stated further that the province was preparing Alternative Local Quarantine (ALQ) facilities to welcome back foreign tourists with a Special Tourist Visa, although the number permitted to enter Chiang Mai have been limited to 400 per day.