Outbound travel washed out
November 17, 2011 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under Associations, Trade Talk
BANGKOK, 17 November 2011: Outbound travel bookings have nose dived as Bangkok residents cancelled holidays to battle floods that threaten their homes, Thai Travel Agents Association president Charoen Wangananont reported, Wednesday.
On the sidelines of a Tourism Authority of Thailand flood briefing, yesterday, the TTAA president told TTR Weekly that cancellations were heavy in the outbound market.
“The trend started during the long weekend holiday, 23 October, when trip cancellations reached 20%, but it escalated to nearly 90% by the end of the month,” he explained.
Most of Thailand’s outbound travellers come from Bangkok and as the floods crept south to inundate the capital, outbound travel shrank dramatically. He estimates lost revenue at around B3 billion for the outbound sector during October and November.
“There is nothing we can do; this is a natural disaster and people are just not in a mood to travel. I think the market will be slow all the way to Chinese New Year in January.”
TTAA will focus on the 10th Thai International Travel Fair in February to revive travel, but before that he warned his members to expect a very lean Christmas and New Year travel season.
