Rayong tourism businesses demand over THB240m from SRPC for Jan oil spill

Fourteen hotel and restaurant operators, accompanied by a lawyer, visited the Rayong Provincial Court on Wednesday to file a case seeking compensation of 240,864,541 baht from the SRPC due to the incident.

The group said the spill on January 28 significantly affected their operations along beaches in Rayong and Koh Samet.

Moreover, it occurred during the high season, so they lost the opportunity to generate income as tourists abruptly cancelled their travel plans.

The group also claimed that SRPC ignored the effect and damages of the leak as the company had claimed the businesses were out of the area of the spill, but in reality the incident widely affected tourism in Rayong.

Therefore, they believe the SRPC has been irresponsible and they had failed to get justice through compensation, so they had no option but to team up to seek fair compensation.

The court accepted the case and scheduled a mediation appointment for November 10.

Previously, the provincial administration had set up a committee to accept applications for compensation. Almost 7,000 people applied, while the SRPC reportedly negotiated with only some of them for a part of the compensation.

Besides the 14 tourism businesses, around 1,000 street vendors also gathered on Tuesday after the SRPC “disqualified” them from getting any compensation.

Almost a year has gone since the spill but the SRPC is yet to provide the exact amount of oil that leaked.