Little impact seen on tourism
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THE TOURISM sector is expected to suffer minimal further impacts from the Greek debt crisis as the industry has already been hit by the economic problems in Europe since 2013, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) and the Tourism Authority of
The number of Greek tourists visiting Thailand is small compared with other markets, said TCT president Ittirit Kinglake. However, if Greece’s economy gets even worse, it could reflect on Europe’s economy, and that would have an impact on the Thai hospitality sector.
“European tourists are still staying home because of the economic slowdown. They have preferred not to travel since 2013,” he said.
“At the moment, Thailand is facing a bigger problem, which is aviation safety. A lot of tourists are concerned that travelling with Thai airlines may be unsafe,” he added.
Juthaporn Rerngronasa, deputy governor of TAT, said it was too early to see any significant negative impact from the financial crisis in Greece because tourists in Europe were still travelling. However, she said they were spending less.
“TAT is revising its tourism marketing plans for Europe by turning the focus on Eastern European countries such as Turkey, Poland and the Czech Republic instead of Western Europe,” she said.
Eastern Europe is becoming a fast-growing market for Thai tourism. Last year, there were only 6 million visitors from Western Europe, down by 2 per cent from 2013. In the meantime, revenue from Eastern European tourists dropped by 0.8 per cent to Bt417 billion.
This year, TAT predicts that 5.5 million Europeans will travel to Thailand, 5.4 per cent fewer than |last year.
