Thai hotels urge strict mpox screening amid tourism, economy concerns
The Thai Hotels Association has urged the Public Health Ministry to implement stringent screening measures for mpox patients to prevent potential disruptions to the tourism industry.
Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, the association’s president, said on Friday that the hotel industry was concerned after Thailand reported its first case of a more severe variant of the highly infectious virus mpox clade 1B on Wednesday.
He said the virus can be transmitted via coughing and sneezing as well as being in contact with patients’ bodily fluids, skin lesions or used utensils.
Thienprasit said the Public Health Ministry and other relevant agencies should take immediate action to contain the spread of the virus, such as setting up checkpoints at airports to screen travellers, especially those arriving from Africa, where the disease is more prevalent.
Despite the mpox scare, Thienprasit remains optimistic about the upcoming high season, which spans from the fourth quarter of this year to the first quarter of next year. However, he said he was worried about the ongoing global conflicts, which may affect the global economy and tourism next year.
He also mentioned rumours that Chinese tourists wanting to travel overseas were facing difficulties in obtaining passports due to Beijing’s policy to promote domestic tourism.
Nonetheless, he expects foreign arrivals to reach 36.7 million this year, in line with the government’s target. However, he cautioned that a decline in tourism spending may hinder efforts to generate the projected 3.5 billion baht in tourism revenue.
According to the Tourism and Sports Ministry, Thailand welcomed 22.47 million people from January 1 to August 18, who contributed about 1.05 trillion baht in tourism revenue. The highest number of arrivals were from China (4.55 million), Malaysia (3.10 million), India (1.29 million), South Korea (1.19 million) and Russia (1.05 million).
