Thai media wakes up to the fact of war in Europe - No Ukrainians, less Russians as tourism hit again. Thai media seems to have finally woken up to the fact that there is a serious war going on in Europe, notes ASEAN NOW. Especially now that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting the Thai pocketbook. ASEAN NOW



 

Thai media seems to have finally woken up to the fact that there is a serious war going on in Europe, notes ASEAN NOW. 

 

Especially now that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting the Thai pocketbook.

 

In a feature article by the Thai Rath news team reporters noted that pump prices are affecting everyone, but especially the transport sector.

 

Tourism is being thoroughly affected despite it being low season. 

 

Ukrainians have stopped coming altogether and Russian tourists are considerably down, Sitthiwat Chiwaratanaporn of the Thai Tourism Business Association noted. 

 

In addition there are 1,000 Ukrainians stranded in Thailand with help underway to extend their visas. 

 

Sitthiwat noted that one in four tourists arriving in the country before the conflict were Russians. Now many are staying home.

 

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He noted that only the very rich ones are coming due to the devastating effect that sanctions have had on the value of the rouble. 

 

He said that in 2019 - pre-pandemic - Russians made up 1.5 million tourists or in excess of 100,000 a month. 

 

Last year they were in fourth place in the leading visitors to the country.

 

An infographic showed the figures for top five nationalities visiting Thailand in 2021:

 

 

1 Germans 45,874

2 British 38,663

3 Americans 37,880

4 Russians 30,759

5. French 23,461

 

Sitthiwat noted further that European tourism in general was down and that it is now the off-season. 

 

Meanwhile everyone in the industry has virtually stopped talking about the Chinese return to Thai shores.

 

Covid outbreaks there have resulted in implementation of the "zero tolerance" policy meaning that tens of millions are under lockdown.

 

Chinese tourism that accounted for around 25% of visitors to Thailand pre-pandemic still looks a long way off as the government there deters travel tours abroad. 

 

Generally speaking Sitthiwat said the pandemic was being well handled but he had little confidence of mass tourism returning any time soon, whether the government declares the disease endemic or not. 

 

That has been indicated as coming around June.

 

He pointed to many countries suffering with Covid and people not having money to travel and picked out South Korea as a case in point. 

 

Visitors from there have little appetite to go to Thailand when a 14 day quarantine awaits them on returning home. 

 

Ten million from China among the 39 million who previously visited and a million from Singapore have disappeared altogether he lamented. 

 

The only bright spot on the horizon was the potential for Saudi Arabian visitors to Thailand.