About 60,000 people canceled their tours.
Hoteliers and tourism entrepreneurs in Chiang Mai are calling on the Thai government to strengthen gun control to ensure safety for the tourism industry following the shooting at Siam Paragon shopping mall on October 3. The incident has affected Chinese tourists' confidence in the destination, according to the Bangkok Post .
About 60,000 Chinese tourists have canceled their trips to Thailand after a shooting at Siam Paragon left three dead - including a Chinese tourist - and four injured. Thai airport data shows the number of Chinese arrivals fell 9.2%, from 650,000 to 590,000 after the incident.
Chinese tourists in traditional Thai costumes visit Wat Arun temple
China was Thailand’s largest outbound tourism market before the pandemic, with about 11 million arrivals in 2019. However, tourism authorities predict less than half that number, or about 5 million, will visit the country this year.
Chiang Mai receives the largest number of Chinese tourists, so much so that five Chinese airlines have opened flights to the province. They are Juneyao Airlines, Spring Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Air China.
Chutidech Promkaewngarm, assistant director at Standard Tour, a major tour operator in the northern region, said the death of the Chinese woman in the shooting had affected tourist confidence. While not all bookings with Chinese tour groups were canceled, many had postponed their trips to Thailand.
Many Chinese netizens posted that they would never visit a country where gun ownership is so widespread, while witnesses at the scene shared their experiences on Chinese social media platform Weibo that their first trip to Thailand would also be their last, he said.
Mr. Chutidech said: Standard Tour welcomed an average of about 20,000 Chinese tourists per month before the pandemic. But now, each month there are about 8,000 - 9,000 tourists, of which more than 70% are family groups.
Tighter gun control
Somrit Haikum, CEO of Pacific World Chiangmai and vice president of the Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce, said the shooting was not a typical incident that would affect tourist confidence. However, the government must take precautions to avoid a recurrence, such as strengthening gun control measures.
Thailand also needs to improve its reputation and reach out to new markets in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia to reduce its dependence on tourists from one country, Mr Somrit said.
"The Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce is closely monitoring the situation. If there is a serious, long-term impact (from the shooting), Thailand and the North will lose tourism revenue. We will have to wait for a few months to see how badly tourism will be affected," Mr Somrit said.
Du runs past an ambulance at Siam Paragon shortly after the shooting.
Paisarn Sukcharoen, president of the Northern Thailand Hotel Association, said the incident had left tour operators and tourism businesses worried, with more than 30% of hotel bookings immediately postponed. How long-term the damage will be to Thailand’s tourism industry, and how many Chinese tourists will arrive during the peak season, needs to be reassessed. Mr. Paisarn believes hotel occupancy rates will definitely decline during the October-November period.
Not only have Chinese tourist arrivals fallen below 2019 levels, but travel agencies in the south have also reported that Malaysian tourists have canceled trips to Thailand. “The gun control measures will restore some confidence, but the important thing is how the government implements them,” he said, adding that if tourist confidence is not restored, the country’s tourism industry will be hurt as it is still recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
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