Long holiday to boost domestic tourism, hotel occupancy
The six-day holiday that starts today will generate up to 1.66 billion baht in domestic tourism from nearly 5 million trips made by Thais, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said on Thursday.
The long break starts on Friday (July 28), His Majesty the King’s birthday, and continues until Wednesday (August 2), the start of Buddhist Lent.
The caretaker government on Tuesday designated Monday (July 31) as an extra public holiday to give Thais more time to head back to their hometowns.
TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said the last-minute announcement of the extra holiday meant that Thai travellers would be unable to plan overseas visits and would therefore switch to domestic trips.
TAT estimates that Thais will make 4.96 million trips during the long break and that hotels will enjoy an average occupation rate of 63%.
Hotels in the eastern region could see up to 68% occupancy, while provinces in the central and northeastern regions will have the highest number of visitors, said Yuthasak.
The south, meanwhile, could see fewer visitors as several maritime national parks are closed for the rainy season both for safety reasons and to let nature recover.
The Thai Chamber of Commerce, however, was more positive about the economic impact of the long weekend, estimating that about 5-7 billion baht will change hands during this period.
According to Sanan Angubolkul, chairman of the chamber, Monday’s extra public holiday would generally benefit the country, but it would also mean extra costs for businesses that would have to pay overtime to their employees.
Sanan added that while he was confident the overtime costs would not significantly impact the businesses involved, the government should have made the announcement earlier to allow businesses more time to plan properly.
