While political unrest in Thailand is making tourists cancel trips to the south east Asian country, Indian tourism is reaping the dividends and is receiving more foreign travellers. However, the benefit might be short-lived, says Divya Kaushik
At the beginning of this month, most travel forecasts hinted that Thailand will continue to be the most favoured destination worldwide, owing to the availability of cheap packages and its popularity as a wedding destination. However, the beginning has not been great. The government in Thailand imposed a state of emergency across the country to regain control of Bangkok after more than a week of mass protests. Political unrest has resulted in cancellation of trips to the South East Asian region. Not just Indians are making changes in their travel itineraries and trying to postpone their travel plan to Thailand even foreigners are knocking it off from their list for time being and are preferring to book a holiday in India. Sharat Dhall, president, Yatra.com, informed that the cancellations in bookings range from five to 10 per cent and till the time matters are resolved in Thailand, tourists are avoiding it. “Domestic travellers are opting for popular destinations like Goa and Kerala in India and foreigners, too, are planning a trip to India. While it is true that Thailand will continue to be the popular destination for a budget holiday, for now people do not want to visit the country,” he said.
Protests and the state of emergency are even making people cut short their Thailand trip and some are reportedly returning from the airport.
Thailand government’s decision to impose emergency in Bangkok is supposed to cause a loss of almost billions for the Thailand tourism industry.
According to the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), the volatile political condition in Bangkok has spurred a huge interest of international travellers seeking holiday escapades in India. Political volatility has been on the rise in Bangkok, especially in the past few days. A couple of bomb blasts took place amidst wide protests. Protesters have been trying for more than two months to bring down the government. The Indian embassy in Thailand too is continuously tracking the situation and coming up with updates.
The global tourism industry has seen such shift of choices due to political and violent condition in a particular destination. For an example, Spain tourism had a major share of international travellers last year owing to the political strife in Egypt. While Bangkok is one of the most popular destinations in Asia, India enjoys the advantage of volatile currency and a plethora of destination choices. In fact, domestic tourism also got a boost as many Indians are also going for home holidays rather than opting for Bangkok as every year about 5,00,000 Indians visit Bangkok.
But the benefit that Indian tourism is reaping at present will be short-lived as the charm of Thai holiday has not faded. “We haven’t seen much difference in bookings post the protests in Thailand as the demonstrations are very localised and majorly in Bangkok. Some travellers are however postponing their trip by a few days but the booking trend is still strong. Also, our packages offer various other destinations around Bangkok that travellers can enjoy,” said Mohit Gupta, chief business officer- Holidays, MakeMyTrip.
Ruchi Gupta, who was planning her trip to Thailand this month has decided to go to Goa instead. “But Thailand is still on my mind. I think reasonable package prices make Thailand a must-visit for travellers. I feel as soon as the present political situation will be resolved Thailand tourism will see a boost,” she said.