Confidence among Thailand’s tourism business operators fell to the lowest level in a decade during the second quarter of 2020, with about 2.6 million workers already out of work and about another 100,000 expected to be laid off in the third quarter of this year, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Mr. Chairat Trairattanacharasporn, president of the Thai Tourism Industry Council, on Tuesday.
The gloomy forecast for Thailand’s travel industry is the result of a survey of 770 tourism business operators between May 10th and 25th.
He admitted that the sector has been hard hit by the lockdown measures, imposed by the Government to stem the spread of the contagion, starting with the imposition of a national state of emergency and the closure of many business and leisure activities. The impacts have caused domestic tourism to contract by about 99%, “because all tourist destinations were closed and there are no foreign tourists at all,” he said.
Tourism operators are, however, more confident about a slight improvement in the third quarter, as the Government has eased most restrictions, with an anticipation that as many as 400,000 foreigners will visit Thailand, generating revenues estimated about 20 billion baht, which is still 96% lower than average.
Unless Thailand opens its borders to allow foreign tourists to enter the country again, he warned that the future would be even bleaker, because most of the sector’s businesses have no access to funding.
