Thailand’s Tourism Drops 20% Due to Political Unrest

Association president Yoothachai Sunthornratanavej said that the current political turmoil from street demonstrations and news photos showing the use of tear gas on demonstrators had scared away tourists.

He said that earlier tourists have just put off their travels, and adopting a wait-and-see of the development of the protest situation in Thailand.

But now as protests dragged on and violence broke out, they had cancelled the trips to Thailand.

He said more than 20% of tourists  have dropped or up to 400,000  have cancelled travels to Thailand.

Meanwhile domestic travelers also have no mood for travels and some of them instead participated in the demonstrations.

He said the drop of tourist travels this year was much higher than when the Suvarnabhumit airport was forced to close three days by protesters in 2008. He said the tourism industry recovered fast from the airport closure, but for this year’s prolonged protest, he said he did not know how long it could recover.