Thai Air, Tourism Shares Slump After Fatal Protests

[Mentors]

Thai Airways International Pcl, the nation’s largest carrier, plunged the most in almost six months after countries including Russia, South Korea and China advised citizens to postpone trips to Bangkok following fatal riots.

 

The carrier slumped as much as 11 percent in Bangkok trading, the biggest intraday decline since Oct. 15. Airports of Thailand Pcl, the country’s largest airfield operator, dropped as much as 6.8 percent. Minor International Pcl, the biggest hotel and restaurant operator, fell as much as 5.3 percent.

 

Thai tourism arrivals may slump 20 percent this year, the nation’s Fiscal Policy Office said in statement today, after 21 people were killed in antigovernment protests and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok last week. All 100 charter flights due from China for this week’s Thai holidays have been canceled, the Bangkok Post said today, citing Vichit Prakobgosol, president of the Thai- Chinese Tourism Alliance Association.

“Tourism will have the hardest and fastest impact from the weekend’s deadly events,†said Sasikorn Charoensuwan, the head of research at Phillip Securities (Thailand) Pcl. “The country will surely lose many overseas tourists for the peak holiday season this week.â€Â

 

Flights into the country during this week’s Thai New Year holidays may decline by 4.1 percent, the Fiscal Policy Office said. The country’s full-year tourism revenue may fall by 20.8 billion baht, it said.

Tourism accounts for about 6.5 percent of Thailand’s economy, said the Fiscal Policy Office, which is part of the finance ministry.

Thai Air has filled about 60 percent of seats in the “past of couple of days,†Raj Tanta-Nanta the company’s vice president of investor relations, said by phone. That compares with about 75 percent this month before the crackdown began on April 10, he said.

“The airline’s daily passenger numbers haven’t looked good since the clash,†said Raja. “I hope it will rebound when the situation returns to normal.â€Â

 

Calls to Thai-Chinese Tourism’s Vichit went unanswered. Some charters flights from China have been canceled, according to a report on the Chinese National Tourism Administration’s Web site.

 

Russians should “refrain from visiting Bangkok until the normalization of the internal political situation,†the nation’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday. South Korea raised its travel alert one level to “cautiousâ€Â. The Dutch government advised against all “non-essential†travel to the Thai capital.

 

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs advised a “high degree of caution†for travel in Thailand. China posted a travel alert on April 8 telling Chinese residents to postpone any travel to Bangkok.

Australians are continuing to fly to Thailand, said Jayson Westbury, chief executive officer of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents.

“There has hardly been a call into this office which tells me that people are travelling as normal,†he said. “The floods in Fiji prompted more consumer and agency response,†he said, referring to the aftermath of Cyclone Tomas last month.

 

H.I.S. Co., Japan’s second-largest travel company, also said that the protests have so far failed to spur widespread changes of travel plans.

“We haven’t see many cancellations from our clients and haven’t seen much impact from this round of demonstrations,†said Kenichi Nakagawa, a spokesman.

 

Thailand is the fourth-most popular travel destination for H.I.S. clients during Japan’s Golden Week holidays that start in late April, the same as last year, according to March 31 data, he said.

 

Thai Air fell 9.8 percent to 25.25 baht as of 11:44 a.m. Airports of Thailand dropped 4.7 percent to 35.25 baht and Minor declined 4.8 percent to 9.90 baht.

 

In 2008, anti-government protesters shut down Thailand’s two main international airports for eight days. Coupled with the global recession, the disruptions helped caused a 35 percent drop in Thai Air’s fourth-quarter traffic and a record annual loss.

 

Singapore Airlines Ltd., Qantas Airways Ltd., All Nippon Airways Co., Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co., China Eastern Airlines Corp., Air China Ltd., Japan Airlines Corp., Korean Air Lines Co., Malaysian Airline System Bhd., Air India, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. and Asiana Airlines Inc. are all continuing scheduled operations to Thailand as normal.

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-12/thai-air-tourism-shares-slump-after-fatal-protests-update1-.html

[Julian2]

I'd like to see a graph of the total tourist entries over....say, the last 20 years.

The "tourism is destroyed" drum's had a pretty good banging just in the few years I've been here; tsunami, coup, bad yellow shirts, bad red shirts. I just wonder how it would all look on a graph.

[USVirgin]

Don't forget SARS and the bird flu. I'm pretty sure SARS had the biggest negative impact on travel within the region in the past decade or so.

[Mentors]

I'd like to see a graph of the total tourist entries over....say, the last 20 years.

The "tourism is destroyed" drum's had a pretty good banging just in the few years I've been here; tsunami, coup, bad yellow shirts, bad red shirts. I just wonder how it would all look on a graph.

 

 

and one question is: How they count the visa runners?

[Julian2]

Airport entries only!

And any one with more than 10 tourist visas in their passport is eliminated from the stats as well!

[WorldFun]

I'd say the graph is steeper for say KH, LA & VN, but higher totals still for TH, but surely with some drastic 'bumps' around now & then...Overall growth though still

[cavanami]

The Spin Doctors are busy!

[Guest]

what I wanna know is, when are "the troubles" going to translate into the fucking value of the baht falling, artificially propped up as it's been for fucking ever!!!

[Torneyboy]

Yeah very strong still

[cavanami]

Don't expect the Baht to weaken anytime soon. The BIG players are cashing in, like always!