Political unrest cause huge drop in domestic travel in Thailand

The government body of travel agencies catering to domestic tourists noted a huge drop of tourists travelling inside their homeland Thailand.

The Association of Domestic Travel (ADT) revealed domestic travel drop 50-60 percent this year due to the unstable political situation in Thailand.

Maiyarat Pheerayakoses the president of ADT revealed the national holiday Songkran or the New Year celebration for Thailand had not effectively helped in luring local residents to travel within the popular Asian country.

Pheerayakoses explained people just decided to stay at the comfort of their homes since many Thai are afraid of violence in the wake of the recent declaration of the state of emergency by the national government.

The Thai Hotels Association (THA) lead by its president Prakit Chinamourphong backed the claim of ADT to the drop of domestic travellers saying the five- and six-star hotels were running at only 5-per-cent occupancy this week.

Meanwhile, Kanog Suvannavisutr, THA president for the northern region, said hotel occupancy in Chiang Mai had fallen to 45-50 per cent, from 100 per cent during Songkran last year.

“Hotels in Chiang Mai are prepared to cut their workforce by 15 per cent, about 4,500 jobs, after the end of the festive season,” Suvannavisutr revealed.

Tourism officials in Thailand hope the national government would do its best to finally put a stop to these violent incidents to lure back local residents to travel.