Survey suggests hotels lacking liquidity
The remaining liquidity of most hotel operators means they will be able to cover operation costs for less than three months, a Bank of Thailand (BoT) survey suggests.
The BoT surveyed 220 hotels, among which 17 were alternative state quarantines and three hospitals, between June 14-27.
According to the central bank’s hotel operator sentiment index for June, 68% of respondents said their remaining liquidity was enough to cover operations for less than three months.
Meanwhile, 26% of hotel operators had enough liquidity to cover operations for less than one month.
Moreover, 58% posted declining liquidity of more than 20% compared to the previous month.
The survey also found that the business sector is hurting due to the Covid-19 outbreak and despite a small rebound in occupancies, it was still at a low level.
In addition, 41% of hotels remained open in June while 19.5% were temporarily closed.
The temporarily closed hotels, mostly in the South, have closed operations for over one year and 75% of them are expecting to reopen in the fourth quarter of this year.
The hotel occupancy rate in June on average was 10%, compared to 6% in the previous month. Hotels located in the Northeastern provinces had an occupancy rate of 13%, the Southern region at 6.3%, the Central region at 13.2%, and the North at 6.2%. The hotel occupancy rate across the country in July is expected to be 12%.
The Southern region had the country’s highest rate of vaccinated labourers at 61.7%, largely due to the 83% vaccination rate in Phuket hotels, in line with the government’s Phuket sandbox scheme which began on July 1. Meanwhile, only 21.1% of labourers in Central provinces were vaccinated, the Northeast was at 16.2% and the North 15.8%.
For assistance measures, hotel operators want debt moratorium as the first priority, followed by a soft loan scheme, additional liquidity demand for wage payments and vaccine procurement and distribution.
According to the survey, 30% of hotels said that they faced additional conditions from financial institutions, making it harder for them to access soft loans.