Songkran water play ban hits tourism hopes

Thailand’s ban on water play during the Songkran festival has dampened the tourism industry’s hopes of revitalising domestic travel.

Following the announcement, businesses in the famous Khao San Road in Bangkok, which usually see loads of tourists joining in the water play and other festivities, expect to see a big dip in their revenues.

On Friday, health authorities banned a variety of the celebration’s customary activities such as water splashing, powder smearing and foam parties.

The government has also announced that April 12 is a special holiday, making the Songkran festival an extended long holiday from April 10 to 15 to stimulate tourism.

However, the Bangkok Post reports Khao San Road Business Association president Sa-nga Ruangwattanakul saying that the number of tourists was likely to drop now that fun activities were not allowed.

He said about 10,000 tourists usually visited Khao San Road daily during the celebrations.

But it now looks like the traders and other businesses will only make a daily income of about 10 million baht.

Business operators will lose a lot of money compared with what they earned in previous years, he said.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic, revenue was about 100 million baht per day,” Sa-nga said.

Following the government’s decision, water guns are now prohibited in the area and tourists will also be screened at checkpoints as part of Covid-19 control measures.

Meanwhile, Phuket Tourist Association president Phumkit Raktaengam said local operators were pushing ahead with a proposal to reopen the resort island to foreign tourists without quarantine from July 1.

He said business operators were confident they can make it happen following the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.

Under the “Phuket Tourism

Sandbox” scheme, the resort island requires 933,174 doses of vaccines for a target population of 466,587.

“Reopening without quarantine can happen if locals and foreign visitors are vaccinated,” Phumkit said, adding that this could be done only if Phuket residents received their vaccines before April 15.

Phuket residents will be able to receive their inoculations at nine centres designated under the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Phumkit said business operators had discussed with their counterparts in Europe and found that customers did not prefer a quarantine.

In the Scandinavian market, 48 per cent of potential tourists want to visit Phuket, Krabi and Phangnga in the Andaman, while 25 per cent want to visit Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao in the Gulf.

Of the total, more than 50 per cent want to spend their days at the beach.