Thailand unrest likely to hit travel companies

Mumbai – Travel companies and airlines are anticipating a major slowdown in travel to Thailand, after the government late Tuesday declared a 60-day emergency in Bangkok — the country’s capital.

“Net bookings are very low for now due to political unrest,” said a senior executive at budget carrier SpiceJet. The airline will withdraw its Pune-Bangkok flight from February 10, the executive told ET.

It will continue to operate its Bangalore-Bangkok flight. “We have advised our clients to defer travel plans to Bangkok till the situation stabilises, our on ground managers and local travel partners continue ongoing and close monitoring and will take every precaution to ensure care and safety of our customers is ensured,” said Shibani Phadkar, senior V-P and head of the outbound international travel business at Thomas Cook.

“Travellers are aware of the situation in Bangkok and we advise our passengers to be cautious. If they want to shift to another destination we will assist them and advise them to travel to neighbouring countries ,” said Karan Anand, head of relations at Cox & Kings, a travel company. But Manoj Samuel , director at Riya Travels, one the biggest offline travel agencies in India, says there will be mass cancellations.

“While leisure travel is slow at this time, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions ) travel is high because of low air fares. That will surely be hit as several groups will cancel plans,” he added. The Thai government on late Tuesday declared an emergency in a bid to tackle the increasing political unrest.

Demonstrators have captured several places in Bangkok in a bid to overthrow the government, reports said. Demonstrators have captured several places in Bangkok in a bid to overthrow the current government.