National—
On April 20th, 2024, Mr. Tienprasit Chaiyapatanan, the President of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), publicly revealed satisfying accommodation booking rates for large Songkran events from April 13th to 15th with 90% of hotels fully booked in major tourism zones.
However, the extension of the Songkran celebration dates to April 21st was not well-received by the tourists and did not directly affect the booking rates as the majority of full bookings were during the water play on the three main days.
Furthermore, many international tourists did not know that there were Songkran celebrations in other provinces or designated areas, which caused confusion, such as Wan Lai in Pattaya on April 19th, according to Tienprasit.
Pattaya’s Wan Lai, however, was seen as a major success with domestic tourists and attracted hundreds of thousands of Thais from early estimates by Pattaya City officials.
It was normal once the festival was over that the accommodation booking rates would drop and would gradually increase over the next few months in some provinces and at tourist attractions. Concerning the ongoing Middle East conflict, the Middle Eastern groups would be less likely to travel abroad, stated Tienprasit.
During the low season starting from May onward, having domestic travel measures from the Thai government would stimulate Thai tourism steadily. However, many factors should be considered such as expensive domestic flight tickets and the scorching weather of this year. As a result, many tourists may opt to travel elsewhere or be less likely to travel at all, according to Tienprasit.
Meanwhile, overall the tourism atmosphere was still moderate as the majority of tourists had booked their accommodation in advance. Further considering the ongoing Middle East conflict, it was possible that some Middle Eastern groups would travel to Thailand to wait out the situation, similar to Russia and Ukraine, as many tourists complimented Thailand as a safe, peaceful country to travel and live, remarked Tienprasit.
This article originally appeared on our sister website The Pattaya News.
