English
Thailand: Japanese cancel tours en masse
Thai tourism has been dealt another massive blow after 80% of Japanese tour groups cancelled packages to Thailand, prompting tour operators to urge airlines to reduce frequency of flights. Thais travelling to Japan have also dropped by 20%.
Anake Srishevachart, president of the Thai-Japan Tourism Association, said 80% of Japanese groups have cancelled packages to Thailand as concerns about the coronavirus epidemic spike in Japan.
The Japanese market ranked third for revenue contribution to Thai tourism last year with 89.8 billion baht from 1.8 million tourists, trailing China and Malaysia.
Tour operators catering to this market expect more cancellations over the next few months because Japanese tourists are highly sensitive to health issues.
Tour operators are already dealing with Thai tourists cancelling travel, worried about the announcement by the Public Health Ministry advising people to delay travel to Japan.
Mr Anake, also honorary adviser to the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA), said outbound tours are urging airlines to reduce the frequency of flights to Japan to align with weaker demand.
This strategy will help stabilise the financial status of tour operators, airlines and customers who already booked packages but want a refund.
“Wholesalers carry the burden of air seats reserved in advance,” Mr Anake said. “If airlines reduce seat capacities to the same level as actual demand and refund the fees of dumped tickets back to tour operators, we can offset this impact by giving refunds to customers.”
Thanapol Cheewarattanaporn, president of the TTAA, said cancellations or delays of outbound trips according to the travel advisory are not under the same condition as the Chinese government’s travel ban.
Tour operators cannot process refunds at the moment because airlines are still operating as usual.
Tourism associations held a meeting with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation yesterday about aid measures.
The proposals include suspension of debt payments, loan fee waivers and offering a 1% interest rate for loans of 2 million baht or less and 3% interest for loans of 10 million baht or less.
Jakapan Leeathiwat, chief executive of Tourkrub, said the cancellation of Japan tour packages reached 20% for those sold on his platform.
Overall bookings for all destinations have seen 5-10% cancellations so far — especially the corporate segment, which is likely to cancel all travel because it cannot risk employees being kept in quarantine for 14 days after returning from trips.
Thai Lion Air chief executive Aswin Yangkirativorn said the average load factor on Japan routes in February is still 60-70%, while Songkran has 50-60% advance booking.
Yodchai Sudhidhanakul, chief executive of NokScoot, said load factor of Japan routes is unaffected by the epidemic and remains at 80%.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1861364/japanese-cancel-tours-en-masse