Tourism in Thailand is being hit by the on-going political turmoil. One forecaster predicts the country will go into recession as a result. Many holidaymakers who have travelled to the Thai capital say they had second-thoughts.
More than a million protest-wary tourists have so far stayed away from Thailand. Here at Bangkok's Dusit Zoo, those who have come - say they had misgivings.
"One day we are thinking we don't come to Thailand, when we are in Germany. Could be dangerous," two tourists say.
"We thought maybe we wouldn"t go to Bangkok at all, but we were still coming to Thailand)" a tourist says.
This French couple say their family asked them to stay away.
"Our family yes but for us no, we don’t scare about it," a tourist says.
In fact, the demonstrations have been more disruptive than dangerous, but five people have been killed and more than 200 injured. Tourism and its associated industries accounts for 15 per cent of Thailand's GDP, and so far has been a bright spot in an economy plagued this year by slow growth, high debt and low confidence. Tourism earnings fell by 124 million US dollars in the first half of December as around 400,000 international and 600,000 domestic travellers put their plans on hold.
This country's often called "Teflon Thailand" because of its resilience to economic misfortune, whether natural or man-made. But with these protests coming ahead of the main tourist season, the consequences this time the consequences may be a little harder to un-stick."
"I really felt we were going to see a pick up in GDP this quarter, obviously the first two quarters we were in a technical recession, we started to see a small recovery coming in Q3 and my forecast for 2013 was for GDP growth of 2.5 per cent, I think we're going to be lucky to see 1 per cent now and going into the first quarter of 2014. I think we're going back into a technical recession again, probably a four per cent negative on GDP for that quarter," Stephen Hinch, Vice President of MBMG Investment Consultants, says.
Though Thailand has a knack of somehow staying afloat.
Source: CCTV
