Virus scare takes a toll on tourism industry
Southeast Asia faces huge losses due to lack of Chinese visitors
LUANG PRABANG, LAOS: Elephant parks unvisited, curios at markets unsold as tuk-tuks sit idle.
Southeast Asia is facing billions of dollars in losses from a collapse in Chinese tourism since the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus.
From Luang Prabang in northern Laos to Pattaya in Thailand, Hoi An in Vietnam and the Cambodian casino town of Sihanoukville, takings have plummeted as Chinese travellers find themselves subject to a host of restrictions at home and abroad.
“We haven’t had any Chinese for 10 days since they closed the road from Yunnan,” says Ong Tau, 47, from behind her stall of fruit shakes in the temple-studded Laotian colonial town of Luang Prabang.
Tour guides, mall workers and restaurant staff are all feeling the burn as Chinese, the world’s biggest travellers, stay at home in the middle of a global health crisis.
The slump is being felt sharply in Thailand, where tourism authorities say arrivals from China, usually close to one million a month, have plunged by 90% so far this February.
At the Chang Siam Elephant Park in Pattaya, owner Nantakorn Phatnamrob fears he will soon be pressed into debt to float a business which has lost nearly US$65,000 (RM269,000) since the outbreak.
Crocodile farms and tiger sanctuaries are also deserted, leaving owners to feed expensive star attractions.
The outbreak has also spooked western tourists at the height of peak season in what has already been a tough period for Thai tourism thanks to a strong baht.
Thailand anticipates shedding five million tourists this year, taking with them “250 billion baht (over RM33 billion) in revenue”, according to Don Nakornthab, director of economic policy at Bank of Thailand.
That will spell bad news for the untold number of Thais working in the tourism sector.
With so much riding on the seasonal influx, some Mekong countries are desperate not to deter those Chinese still travelling.
Thailand offers visa on arrival for Chinese tourists despite having one of the highest numbers of confirmed infections – 34 – outside of the mainland.
For Cambodia, leader Hun Sen has repeatedly played down the risk to his country.
Still, Cambodian tourism is taking a hammering.
Ticket sales at the famed Angkor Wot temple complex in Siem Reap have fallen between 30 and 40% this year, while in Sihanoukville, a southern beach resort notorious for its casinos, the tourist take has shrivelled. – AFP