By Tuong Vi, Thoa Nguyen and Mong Binh - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC, HANOI – Thailand is experiencing a sharp fall in the number of Vietnamese visitors as travel companies have canceled tours due to safety fears for their guests, given the current situation in Bangkok.
Pichai Raktasinha, director of the HCMC office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said preliminary estimates showed Vietnamese tourist arrivals had plunged by 50% because of the ongoing political unrest in the city.
Pichai told the Daily on the phone on Monday from Bangkok, that travel companies in Vietnam had been advised to arrange tours to other destinations in Thailand like Pattaya and Phuket rather than Bangkok.
Many tour operators in Vietnam have followed the advice. TST Tourist, a leading tour organizer to Thailand, said it had not taken guests to Thailand since April 8, one day after the company’s last group returned from Thailand.
Lai Minh Duy, TST’s general director, told the Daily that the company had no choice but to suspend tours to Thailand for now to protect their guests’ safety, even though the demand to travel there was high, due to the popular upcoming festival Songkran, which starts on April 13.
Natural Tourist will resume tours to Thailand when the situation in Bangkok defuses. Director Huynh My Yen said the company had refunded money to 10 guests and offered others options to travel to destinations in mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
Other tour operators, including TST and Lua Viet Tours have taken the same action. Meanwhile, Ben Thanh Tourist said it would probably suspend tours to Thailand throughout April.
Ta Thi Cam Vinh, Ben Thanh Tourist’s outbound manager, told the Daily on Monday that the company had plans to postpone tours for 10 groups of some 200 people to Thailand until May but stressed that this would depend on the situation in the country.
Duy of TST said the company would receive bookings for trips to Thailand from April 20 to April 30, as there would be major holidays in Vietnam to commemorate Hung Kings and to celebrate Vietnam’s reunification on April 30.
Duy added that the company expected to attract 500 guests, but said it would take them to Thailand when the situation was less volatile.
Though the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has not issued any official travel advisory since the demonstrations accelerated in Bangkok last week, it said last month’s document already conveyed the content in general.
Nguyen Manh Cuong, deputy head of VNAT under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the Daily on Monday that VNAT called for travel companies not to organize tours for Vietnamese people to visit any unsafe place.
Document 158/TCDL-LH states that travel companies should not arrange tours to destinations that are questionable in terms of security, safety and public order. Travel companies must report any unfavorable cases to VNAT, so that the agency can act accordingly.
Pichai of TAT confirmed that the Thai Government had set up an insurance scheme for foreigners who are harmed, affected by losses, or unable to leave the country due to the riots.
Pichai said as far as he knows financial compensation could amount to US$10,000, and that affected foreigners could ask Thai tour organizers to claim the compensation.
TAT said both domestic and international airports, including Suvarnabhumi, remained operational. Therefore, he said, the current unrest in Bangkok has not impacted the flights between Thailand and Vietnam.
AirAsia and Thai Airways International, the two biggest service operators between the two countries, said they were evaluating the impact on their seat occupancy, and confirmed normal operation of their daily flights.