OUTBOUND travel operators in Asia saw a mixed bag of responses from their customers three days after the deadly bomb attack in Bangkok, which local authorities say was targeted at damaging tourism in the country.
Hong Kong operators experienced the biggest backlash, likely a result of the government’s issuing of a level 4 travel advisory – the second highest possible – to its citizens on August 18, a day after the bombing.
Following the alert, 18 key outbound agencies operating Bangkok tours agreed to cancel their packages, with the exception of cruise and charter tours which depart between the afternoon of August 18 and August 31. In total, over 200 tours involving 4,000 travellers were affected.
Danny Wong, FIT specialist at China Travel Services (Hong Kong), said: “We had a lot of bookings cancelled and refunds requested, with projections of more than a 50 per cent drop for bookings in September.”
A more muted response is seen among Chinese travel agencies. Reder Wang Yonghong, managing director of Shenzhen CEPT International Travel Service, said: “Since the tragedy happened, there isn’t any travel warning raised by the government. Therefore, it depends on our clients’ judgements whether or not to continue their travel to Bangkok.
“We did receive some cancellations but frankly, the immediate impact is not big because the summer holiday is almost ending and most of the package tours departed earlier. My concern is upcoming bookings for September where we estimate a drop of about 20-30 per cent.”
Vico Wei, chief inspector of Guangdong China Travel Service played down the impact, saying tour groups will simply avoid high-risk areas. “Better still, FITs may even switch to package tours as they will be taken good care of. Therefore, I am optimistic and trust the bombing will only have a short-term impact on tourism.”
In South-east Asia, operators are seeing customers erring on the side of caution. Alicia Seah, director of marketing communications at Dynasty Travel Singapore, said: “For the next peak period in September, we will have about 150 travellers to Bangkok, primarily consisting of MICE groups and some leisure travellers.
“About 60 per cent of the travellers have requested to transfer to other cities such as Malaysia, Indonesia or Vietnam,” she added.
Rocky Kho, managing director at Skyzone Tours & Travel in Kuala Lumpur, said he has not received cancellations for his September bookings so far, albeit acknowledging cancellations may still come in the future.
Desmond Lee, managing director of Kuala Lumpur-based Apple Vacations & Conventions has not received any cancellations of forward bookings as well. He said: “The powerful bomb blast on the Hindu Shrine on Monday was an isolated case. It will not deter Malaysians from going to Bangkok, unless there is a travel advisory.”
Over in Indonesia, Pauline Suharno, managing director of Elok Tour Jakarta said that the ASEANTA/FATA will continue its plan to hold its meeting in Bangkok at the end of August.
She added that most Indonesia travellers are adopting a wait-and-see approach, avoiding travel to Bangkok unless required for business purposes.
Rudiana, director of sales and marketing at WITA Tour, concurred: “Our MICE department have received invitations to bid for MLM incentive tours between September and November and they specifically requested not to include Thailand in our offer of destinations.”
Than Dam, a travel consultant at Vietnam’s Aurora Travel remains optimistic and pragmatic. “No bookings have been cancelled so far. The bombing is not a problem if you choose to stay at hotels around the river instead,” he said.
