Political unrest can damage fragile recovery in tourism, council warns

The tourism industry has only recently recovered from the pandemic and is not yet strong, the council’s president, Chamnan Srisawat, said.

Political turmoil and protests will damage the tourism industry – the country’s main economic engine, Chamnan added.

He made the statement before meeting Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat, the candidate for prime minister of an eight-party alliance.

Some pundits have warned that massive demonstrations are possible if Pita fails in his bid to become Thailand’s next prime minister.

His party won the most seats in the House of Representative in the May 14 election, and swept 32 of Bangkok’s 33 constituencies, but it faces hostility in the coup-appointed Senate.

Chamnan said his council is ready to work with any new government.

However, it had extended an invitation to Pita to be Thailand’s global tourism ambassador and Pita accepted the invitation on Saturday at an event that drew national media attention.

Chamnan urged the next government to implement tourism policies to assist small business owners, noting that previous initiatives, like the Rao Tiew Duay Kan (We Travel Together) project, have expired.

He also called for a simplified visa system to make it easier for foreign tourists to enter Thailand. In particular, he called for an easier visa process for Chinese nationals, saying they could significantly boost tourism revenues in the third quarter.

More than 2 million foreign tourists have been arriving in Thailand each month since December of last year, Chamnan said.

So far this year, 12.8 million foreign tourists have arrived, slightly less than the council’s 13 million target.

Its target for the full year is 30 million foreign tourists.

Chamnan said the number of overseas visitors has started to slow and that the recovery has been uneven, explaining that 34% of business owners in the tourism industry have seen rising revenue while 34% were seeing revenues declining.

He called on the next government to support small and medium-sized enterprises, and both foreign and domestic tourism.

Pakakrong Theparak, a lecturer at the Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, said confidence had dropped among operators of tourism businesses during the second quarter, but was expected to rebound in the third quarter.

She said the Thai tourism industry had recovered to about 60% of its pre-pandemic level.

Srivijaya forecast that the number of foreign tourists visiting Thailand this year would be 29.35 million, slightly below the target of 30 million, due to slowing economies in Europe and North America as well as a depreciating Japanese yen.

She agreed with Chamnan that the tourism industry will be the main growth driver for the Thai economy this year, noting that exports have been weak.

It is vital to make it easier for foreign tourists to enter Thailand, she said.