Prakit Chinamourphong, recently reap¬pointed as president of the Thai Hotels Association for another term, sees a growing need for private operators to seek new markets and promote domestic travel.
Speaking yesterday, he said this would be one way of alleviating the damage caused by the most recent round of polit¬ical turmoil.
The hotel industry has been hit hard by the heated political conflict of the past couple of months, with occupancy rates at an extraordinarily low level. Average occupancy in central Bangkok, including the Khao San Road and Rajdamnoen Avenue areas, have plunged a whopping 70 per cent year on year, while other parts of the capital are experiencing a 2030percent decline.
"The THA will try to bring in more guests to fill up these rooms. We hope this will help operators survive. I don't want to see them shut down," said Prakit, who beat out seven other candidates to win another twoyear term as president.
Although hotels in some main desti¬nations, including Phuket, Koh Samui and Krabi, are actually maintaining high occupancy despite the unrest, Prakit said new bookings for the Songkran festival were down from this time last year, because tourists feared more violence.
Dusit International CEO Chanin Donavanik said his group's average occu¬pancy was down by 10 per cent this month. However, if the political stale¬mate can end within the next week or two, the hotel industry will bounce back to normal, he said.
Apichart Sankary, a tourism expert at the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, said the organisation would hold an urgent meeting today asking members to move against political vio¬lence.
Earlier, he said 10,000 hotel staff would be invited to gather in Bangkok to call on political activists not to spread violence in the country, because that would damage tourism.
Prakit said the THA would work with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and its members to restore tourism by seeking for new target markets within China, Japan and Europe.
Moreover, the THA will push forward marketing efforts aimed at boosting domestic tourism, like it did last year.
The THA and the TAT will also estab¬lish a Tourism Human Development Institute to prepare hoteliers and tourism specialists.
One shortterm marketing strategy will be the "50th Anniversary of the TAT" campaign, aimed at gaining repeat visits to the Kingdom.
Prakit said many new hotels were scheduled to open in Bangkok soon, adding 2,0003,000 more rooms to the mix.
"This will intensify competition in the capital," he added.
