Hurricane Sandy to have little effect on US tourism to Thailand, experts say
Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey on Monday, will have only a marginal impact on the number of American tourists coming to Thailand, as the United States is a big country with many international airports, according to executives in the to
At worst, they believe that flights may be postponed for two or three days before the situation returns to normal. Also, Americans are accustomed to natural disasters like this.
Juthaporn Rerngronasa, deputy governor for marketing in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, believes the impact will be light. Overall this year, the number of American tourists coming to Thailand will rise by 11 per cent to 710,000 this year, from about 600,000 last year.
"It is very short-term impact," she said.
Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said the hurricane’s effect on Thai tourism would be slight. Some tourists will have booked in advance. In fact, 90 per cent of American tourists come here by themselves, and the rest with tour companies.
Pornthip Samerton, managing director of Destination Asia, a veteran inbound travel agency, believes the situation will take only a few days to return to normal.
However, she thought a more serious impact on outbound US tourism would be the presidential election. The agency is keeping an eye on that situation as a "big issue".
An executive said most flight cancellations during the severe weather on the US east coast were domestic, not international. The United States is a big country that relies heavily on air transport. The situation will not have much of an impact on Thai tourism.
