Hotels want soft loans, salary co-payment after new outbreak hurts tourism

The Thai Hotels Association (THA) will ask for more government measures to soften the impact of Covid-19 on the sector, THA chairperson Marisa Sukusol told the Thansettakij newspaper.

Among them is a measure allowing hotels to suspend their outstanding debt. Hotels want to halt their principal and interest payments for two years. The THA also wants annual interest on hotel debt to be cut to 2 per cent.

The THA will also ask the government to allocate budget for soft loans of up to Bt60 million per hotel at 2 per cent interest, with principal and interest repayment suspended for two years. When payment is due, the loans should be converted into long-term credit at low interest. The loans were needed to boost liquidity, the association said.

It will also ask the government to pay 50 per cent of monthly staff salaries in order to retain as many as 200,000 hotel employees nationwide.

The co-payment scheme would cover monthly salaries of up to Bt15,000 and last for one year. Payments would be transferred directly into their accounts via Krungthai Bank. The total cost of the scheme is estimated at Bt18 billion.

Hotel operators calculate the Covid-19 impact could drag on until late next year, due to the fresh outbreak in Thailand.

The new surge of infections has seen some hotels that had reopened, close again after guests cancelled bookings over infection fears.