Overnight I received a rather depressing e-mail from a general manager whom I know rather well who heads up a hotel in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok.

He related the news that emanated from a meeting of general managers of many of Bangkok's hotels held on Friday afternoon.

It transpired that at the present time:

* Most 5* star hotels in the Sukhumvit area are down to 20% occupancy rates.

* Riverside 5* hotels are doing better at an average 41% occupancy rates.

Other hotels in the Sukhumvit, Silom and Riverside areas have had similar reductions in occupancy rates, which averages 38%,

More alarming, is that forward bookings particularly for June and July are looking scary, with mass cancellations from wholesalers, travel agencies and individuals.

Thai Airways, on direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Bangkok are reported to be flying out of the airports with only a 40% payload factor.

On another web site, there are desperate cries for help for tourists to come to Chiang Mai. It is reported that those people involved in the tourism sector of Chiang Mai are facing particularly tough times.

Some cannot afford to send their children to school following the Songran school holidays. Others have laid off staff from their businesses and drivers in the touring sectors are worried sick about being able to meet the repayments on their vehicles.

One elephant park owner "dumped" twelve pacyhderms at the front doors of the Chiang Mai town hall overnight as he said that the park averaged 1000 visitors per week, but over the past month this figure had dropped to 120 per week and was continuing to drop each subsequent week and hence he did not have the money to feed his 50 elephants.

A very large franchised travel agency here in Australia has reported cancellations for confirmed bookings to Thailand as running at 37% as of last week and forward bookings have collapsed.

Whilst there are still worries concerning safety issues in Bangkok, other areas of Thailand at this time appear relatively unaffected.

Don't let these poor Thai people perish through little fault of their own. Go on, book your Thailand holiday now and if Bangkok worries you remember you will only be at the airport for a transfer to elsewhere. The southern islands, Krabi, the north of Thailand represented by Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai await your visitation as do the delightful towns of Hua Hin and Kanchanaburi which are only a couple of hours' drive from Bangkok.

Keep your eyes on the travel accumulator web sites such as Agoda and Wotif as I'm sure that the already good prices on offer will come down over the forthcoming weeks in order to attract more visitors to "the land of smiles".

We're leaving in 5 weeks and spending the first few nights in Bangkok. Problem is, as the UK foreign office is saying only essential travel to Bangkok we invaildate our insurance if we stay.

They have said most other parts of Thailand now ok so if it stays like that we are looking to go tyo Chaing Mai instead.

However, if the warning goes back to all of the country we have no choice but to stay away.

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!

It really is a shame because once faith is lost it takes a lot to restore it. I am hoping to go around October now. Going to spend the next holiday on the coast in our static caravan and get some money together we seem to have had a lot of expenditure lately and have done quite a bit to the house.
Hope that things return to a stable basis soon.
If i win the low cost holiday thing I hope that one of the destinations will be Thailand. You can dream can't you.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...DTitle&h=e6cfb

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Kiss
God laughs at people who make plans.

I am wondering if maybe some of these 5-star places haven't priced themselves out of the market? I have been researching 5,4, and 3-star hotels in BKK for the last couple of days, and I fail to see in many cases, where a little extra glitz and glamor warrants a 4000-8000 THB rate, as opposed to 2000-3000 BHT rooms.

Think about it...most tourists simply use BKK as a jumping off place, and soon head to other parts. But for those who stay in BKK for a while, who is going to spend their days in the hotel or hotel room? Besides that, a fancy restaurant is no "plus" in my book. I believe most folks would rather find a local restaurant.

Business travelers are a different story, but I don't think they are accounted for in this discussion.

I have found several 3-star hotels with restaurant and pool. I am not going to go that route, but 4-star is a definite maybe. To some extent you DO get what you pay for. However, 5-star is also out. Besides, the star-rating system is usually a self-rating system, and you will find that a lot of places think mighty highly of themselves in this respect. Too bad BKK's hotels are not rated by an independent company. THAT would tell a story!

You are right about the price tags of the 5* hotels in Bangkok. And there are plenty of them. Surprisingly, after the thousands of cancellations following the Bangkok uprising, they PUT UP their prices. That is a very Thai thing to do in the face of adversity.

However, now that economic reality has set in, the price hikes have temporarily disappeared and have been replaced with some real bargains.

If you go to an accumulator discounter such as Agoda, you will see some of the best prices for Bangkok that I've ever seen. I agree with you, give the 5* a miss and concentrate on those 3-4 star properties, preferably close to the BTS and with a swimming pool and breakfast thrown in as well.

I am writing this from Copenhagen.
We left Sydney for BBK on Saturday (7 August). Our plane was an Airbus 340-600 and was absolutely full. In fact there was not one seat left mainly because there was a group of Italian school kids returning home from a visit to Oz. If we took this group away I estimate there would have been 100 passengers in a plane that could hold around 300. The flight was horrible as the air bus seems to have less room than the old 747's that were used before the slide in numbers. We were in cattle class for this leg of our trip and I got off the plane feeling like I had been in a sardine tin for 9 hours. Most of the passengers went to the transit loung and my guess is that probably no more than 50-100 were staying in BKK.

We stayed at the Manhattan hotel on Sukumvit road (oldish 3 star hotel but clean and in a handy location). The hotel was pretty full and no staff had been put off here which was pleasing. The tariff had been reduced by 300 baht and was a bargain, however, the rabbit had booked last year and paid the premium rate!!.I suspect the 4 and 5 star hotels are the ones suffering the most. Walking around the streets and in MBK I formed the view that it was getting back to business as usual and things were getting back to normal- certainly plenty of tourists around. Lets hope things continue to keep improving.

Hi below is the current state of UK Foreign office advise .
Bangkok OK .

We advise against all but essential travel to, or through, the far southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla, due to the insurgency in these areas. See the Terrorism/Security section of this travel advice.


Elsewhere in Thailand, the situation is generally calm following recent political and civil unrest. There have been no serious incidents of violence since 21 May. However there remains a risk that political developments may lead to further violence. You should follow news reports and be alert to any developments which might trigger public protests or unrest.

just back from phuket.. two weeks over there. great holiday.wish it was longer.thanks

Hello all today is 29 aug 2010 i was wondering how thailand is going today are there still issues and a reason to avoid thailand right now i know many people may have stay away due to the troubles however i looking to go in dec for a few weeks maybe 2-3 weeks as i love thailand, the country rocks and it a great place to visit

this time around i have a child 3 years old so not sure what to do or where to go? I was all over last time so i may try some new stops or stick to what i know? Any suggests?

Thanks all,

I read in the english papers this weekend that the red shirts are back. Nothing has made the headlines so no idea what they are doing and what the impact is so will need to do some research.

Surely it can't all be starting again.

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!