Bangkok Hotel Bars Empty Tourists Leaving

[Kanok Karn]

While central Bangkok has avoided flooding so far, hotels and office buildings have erected walls of sandbags to protect against waters that have killed more than 500 people nationwide. The threat has also deterred tourists, forcing Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (293) to cut flights, hitting reservations at Shangri-La Asia Ltd. (69) hotels and contributing to the central bank cutting its growth forecast.

Business is really bad as tourists from Europe and the Middle East have almost all vanished



The flood waters haven’t directly affected Bangkok’s main tourist-shopping hub of Sukhumvit and Rachaprasong or the Silom business district. Other popular Thai holiday destinations such as the beach resorts of Phuket and Koh Samui have also avoided flooding.

The floods have spread across 64 of Thailand’s 77 provinces over the past three months, shuttering 10,000 factories. Bangkok supermarkets have also run short of necessities, such as rice, instant noodles, eggs and bottled water, because of hoarding and supply-chain disruptions.

Cancellations at Bangkok hotels have accelerated in the past week as concerns about flooding prompt customers to alter plans for meetings, weddings, events and holidays, said Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association, which represents about 765 of the nation’s 4,000 hotels.

[PsntlAdmin]

Can Thailand really serve people food when they not have food for their own people in the north?