It's still busy at the moment on Phi Phi Island with people in the travel agents helping people asking how to get to bangkok without flying, how to change flight details. The closure of the Bangkok airports may come to a head on Wednesday when the government disbands the political parties and so ending the dead lock..
it's still tense at the airports in bangkok and tourist have been majorly inconvenienced if their flight has been canceled from Bangkok. The trains from the south are full up to Bangkok and the buses are filling.
The travel industry is working very hard to overcome the travelers hardships and the airport at U Tapao in Pattaya is being used for some international flights as it is only 2 hours down the road from Bangkok.
Labels: Bangkok airports, flights, hotels, PAD, travel
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Are these unusually Scary times in paradise Phi Phi Island?
For what's going on in
Bangkok today I don not want to repeat what the BBC has done very well.
There is a famous tee shirt that you can buy in many of the clothing shops on Phi Phi island that list all the catastrophes that have happened to the tourist industry in the last ten years. The 3 wars in Kuwait, Iraq, Afganistan, 9-11, SARS, Bird Flu, and as recently as 2004, the Indian ocean tsunami. The t shirts were a joke that showed that in spite of massive reductions in tourists arriving during the calamities, the travel business was resilient and determined to keep on going.
The tourists business had recovered from the latest disaster and was showing true signs of growing. When you’re tourist industry employs large swaths of the local population, growth in tourism is a good thing. Work for the local population Meant a better lifestyle not only for the individual person but also the families of dependents. These dependents are all over Thailand.
So there are two points. Local people on the island are fully aware that the events in the end might stop tourists arriving in Thailand for a short while and this could harm the travel business greatly but only in the short term. The second point is the Thai travel business is very quick to get going after these calamities and can resume normal service overnight.
It is interesting to note that bookings for Phi Phi holidays in 5,6,7 weeks from now are still going ahead at normal levels. This shows 3 points. Firstly people understand that the unrest in Thailand is a Thai matter and tourists are not involved. Secondly an extremely high percentage of travelers to Thailand are return Holiday makers and referrals from friends and are fully aware that what happens in Bangkok rarely influences or effects the islands to the South like Phi Phi. And thirdly a lot of these tourists are comfortable that the troubles will go away quickly.
Labels: Bangkok, PAD, phi phi, politcal, unrest, yellow shirts
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The Thai government declaring a state of emergency after members of the PAD(People's Alliance for Democracy) overwhelmed the Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang international airports of Bangkok with large numbers of followers, acted to resume order.
While there is no discernible effects on holidaymakers and travelers in the southern islands of Phuket, Phi Phi island and koh Samui, the facts that the closure of Bangkok’s airports for however long have made vacationers worried about the travel plans.
The travel industry of Thailand would be greatly affected if the main airports would be shut for too long.
Labels: Bangkok Airpots, PAD, Politics, state of emergency, Thai
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