NEW DELHI, May 23 — Tourists from India might give Thailand a miss during the peak travel season and head towards other destinations such as Malaysia and Bali amid the military coup yesterday, said a news report.
Thailand could lose its position as the top overseas destination for Indian tourists and a country that survives on tourism, the Times of India reported.
Tour operators feel Indian tourists might be cautious and head to other destinations like Bali, Malaysia, Cambodia and Hong Kong instead.
“It is too early to assess the impact. There could be an impact in the short term and people might switch to neighbouring destinations. Malaysia and Hong Kong stand to benefit,” Cox & Kings’ head, Karan Anand told the English daily.
“Protests in Thailand, which have been going on for a while, were confined to parts of Bangkok and people have been skipping the city and flying straight to Pattaya or Koh Samui.”
Thailand is a favourite with Indian travellers as it has options to suit all budgets.
It’s not only leisure travellers, but corporates also offer tours as incentives to top performing employees that choose the country.
“Due to the elections in India, many people delayed their summer travel plans and we saw an increase in bookings to Thailand in the past 10 days,” MakeMyTrip, chief business officer-holidays, Mohit Gupta said.
Tourism in Thailand has been affected by the political unrest in the last few months.
“In packages combining Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, customers have been asking us to drop Thailand and include another country,” Asia Pacific Tours’ President and Chief Executive Officer, M K Ajit Kumar said. — Bernama
