KRC: Vast floods affect domestic tourism

BANGKOK, November 17 (TNA) - The Kasikorn Research Centre (KRC) said on Thursday that Thailand's vast floods since late July, affecting dozens of provinces in the northern, northeastern and central regions, including Bangkok, are likely to cause a loss of some 35 billion baht to domestic tourism revenues this year. According to the Bangkok-based research firm, the number of Thai people visiting tourist attractions in the flood-stricken provinces has considerably dropped over the past couple of months, pulling down as well tourism-related revenues in the areas. The leading private think tank, therefore, assessed that the domestic tourism market among Thai people alone would obviously slow down in the second half of this year, resulting in an overall drop in both the number of Thai tourists and tourism-related revenues by about 8.7 million and 35 billion baht respectively this year. The KRC said whether the domestic tourism market among Thai people could revitalize by the second quarter of 2012, when there will be long traditional Songkran and school holidays, depends on how quickly local tourist attractions in the flood-hit areas would be rehabilitated. (TNA)