Travel firms resume tours to Thailand

      Local travel companies have resumed their tours to Thailand while airlines report bookings for their flights to and from Bangkok on the way to normalcy after anti-government protesters dispersed in the country’s capital city last week.
Vietravel and TST have re-organized their tours to Thailand four days after temporary postponement and call-offs for the reason that political uncertainties in Bangkok could endanger the safety of their guests.
Lai Minh Duy, general director of TST Tourist, told the Daily that his company started to take Vietnamese travelers to Thailand including more than 20 people departing for Bangkok last Friday following the improvements in Bangkok.
Tran Doan The Duy, outbound director of Vietravel, confirmed that the company on Friday arranged a tour to Thailand for some 25 Vietnamese holidaygoers who had made bookings ahead of the large-scaled demonstrations in Pattaya and Bangkok.
Duy told the Daily on the phone that Vietravel saw less Vietnamese people book tours to Thailand these days, but this was just a slight decline. He added that Vietravel would arrange one tour a day on average for Vietnamese travelers to Thailand between now and the holidays on April 30 when Vietnam celebrated the country’s reunification and May Day.
Nguyen Thanh Hai, outbound manager of Fiditour, told the Daily that political unrest in Thailand had placed little impact on bookings at one of the leading tour operators. He said that more Vietnamese people would continue to go on vacation in the neighboring country of Vietnam given the aforesaid holidays and the approach of summer.
Like travel companies, airlines have shrugged off their worries as their bookings had bounced back after several days of cancellations and postponement from leisure passengers for fear of political turmoil in Bangkok.
Bui Duc Hanh, Hanoi station manager of Thai AirAsia, told the Daily on the phone that only a small number of passengers of the low-cost carrier asked for cancellations or information about political unrest in Bangkok.
Hanh said the impact of what happened in Bangkok last week on the airline’s operation was nothing compared to the closure of Bangkok airports including Suvarnabhumi in late last year. He revealed Thai AirAsia now posted seat occupancy rate of some 75% for the daily flights between Hanoi and Bangkok and more than 80% for the HCMC-Bangkok service.
Thai Airways, which operates the largest number of daily flights between Vietnam and Bangkok, said its seat occupancy for the flights on this route just slid because of some cancellations during the days when protesters crowded certain areas in Bangkok.
The Bangkok-headquartered airline believed the load factor would soon increase when tour operators and individuals increased bookings as things in Bangkok had changed positively.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) sent a report to the Daily last week, saying that the situation in Bangkok had returned to normality.
“The Kingdom’s various tourist attractions and shopping districts are open for business as usual and tourists and visitors can continue to enjoy the variety of sites, food and experiences,” TAT said in the update report.