About third of tourism industry in Thailand is at risk warns Tourism Council chairman

Approximately 30% of Thailand 's tourism business operators are at risk losing their ability to keep their businesses floating in the second half of 2020, Thailand 's Tourism Council chairman Trirattanajarasporn has warned.

"The impact of Covid-19 will become more serious in the third quarter of this year. Many operators tried to cut costs by letting some of their employees go, but after more than a million jobs cut, the situation has not yet improved. Foreign tourists are not yet permitted to enter the country," he said. "The council estimates that in the next three months, up to 30% of tourism-related businesses are at risk to shut down."   

"However, since the real estate business is also affected by the economic crisis, the hope for these owners to sell their properties is still bleak," he added. "The council met with Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday (July 10) and proposed five measures to help tourism business operators," Chairat said. 'These steps include: supplying soft loans to tourism entrepreneurs; proposing changing the timetable to open the nation to international visitors under a travel bubble scheme-like practice; giving concessions on energy bills, one of the critical costs of hotel operators; increasing the incentive packages to temporarily unemployed workers from June to December;

Chairat also added that Thailand 's Tourism Council predicted revenue from foreign tourists would drop significantly from last year's Bt2.2 trillion to just around Bt600 billion by 2020.

Source: Nation Thailand