Security personnel at the site of the bomb blast. Credit: Andrew Wood
BANGKOK city is calm but turbulence reigns in the minds of industry members as to how much damage yesterday’s blast – the first directly aimed at tourists – will affect tourism.
Though it’s still early days, when asked to assess the impact, players believe huge markets for Thailand, such as MICE and China, would be among the first flashpoints.
“The real danger to the Thailand travel industry is the MICE sector,” said James Reed, CEO/group managing director of Destination Asia.
“Our MICE clientele is 85 per cent Fortune 500 corporations or top 50 companies in the US, the UK, continental Europe, Australia and ASEAN, and this is a very sensitive market segment as the participants are the corporations’ best sales executives. Few corporations will take the risk of sending their best employees to an incentive or corporate meeting if there is any possibility of a terrorist attack.”
Reed expects the immediate reaction to be not only cancellations of MICE programmes, but no new RFPs for corporate events in the future. “The effect of a terrorist attack can linger for up to 12 months, if not longer, and in my career I have seen many similar ‘risk/go or no go’ scenarios.”
On the China market, Bill Barnett, managing director of Phuket-based C9 Hotelworks, said: “The Chinese element in the story and how it plays to the social media in the mainland are crucial.”
Tourism from Asia would likely be impacted, agreed Andrew Wood, tourism lecturer in Thailand and immediate past president of Skal International Thailand.
“How will this affect Thai tourism? We expect to attract 29 million tourists in 2015. Will our resilience hold steadfast yet again? I believe so, but tourism from Asia will likely be impacted. China and Japan for sure. Maybe 27 million would now be more realistic, up from 24.8 million last year.
“The total contribution of travel and tourism to Thailand’s GDP was 2.3 billion baht (US$64.6 million) or 19.3 per cent of GDP in 2014, and was forecasted to rise by 3.2 per cent in 2015 prior to last night’s bombing. Two million fewer tourists should not be noticeable at the end of the day on GDP,” said Wood.
As of today, all DMCs interviewed said their clients were accounted for but were unsure whether the phones would start ringing for cancellations in the next few days.
Laurent Kuenzle, CEO of Asian Trails, said: “We worked throughout the night to contact as many of our clients as possible and to account for all our staff, including drivers and guides. All are safe. We have not faced panicked clients so far who wanted to take the next plane home. The situation this morning is calm, we are informing our clients on the latest developments and make sure that they feel well taken care of.
“Today and in the next few days we will see what the imminent impact will be and how the booking status develops, including cancellations and a slow down of new bookings.”
Ensuring the safety and comfort of clients who are in the city is paramount, agreed members.
Hamish Keith, COO of Exo Travel Group, said: “We have spoken to all clients in Bangkok and will take extra care with all tours in Bangkok and will be briefing guides and ensuring pick-ups are earlier than scheduled. We have not had any cancellations so far and we hope this terrible event is a one-off and that the city will quickly return to normal.”
Added Chris Bailey, COO of Centara Hotels & Resorts: “Our main objective in the coming days is to ensure the safety and of course comfort of our in-house guests as they continue their visit to Thailand. As the dust settles we will get some clarity on the fallout, if any, and due to our history and past varying experiences, we will start to work on the journey back if needed.
“This is a terrible situation and more information is very much needed, but we have to stay focused. Thailand needs its visitors and we have many thousands of associates here that need their positions within this vital industry,” added Bailey.
