Thai hotels have reported an increase in reservations due to government agencies that needed to manage their current fiscal budget before their deadline at the end of this month.
Thai Hotels Association (THA) President Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi has disclosed that hotel reservations in September grew by 10-20% due to an increase in meetings by private and public sectors. She stated that hotels have recently received more inquiries from agencies that need to use their 2023 fiscal budget before September 30, which is the current fiscal year’s deadline.
The THA president noted that hotel reservations for meetings have been sluggish for the past few months due to political uncertainties, resulting in both public and private agencies being reluctant to allocate budget spending on workshops and seminars.
The THA president noted, however, that bookings from Chinese tourists are still low despite the long holidays being in the first week of October. She claimed that, despite a good occupancy rate from individual guests with purchasing power, Thai hotels are nonetheless impacted by a variety of variables, especially negative posts on Chinese social media about Thailand.
To address the tourism issue, the THA president said the agency recently encouraged the government to introduce a visa-free policy in order to attract more Chinese visitors, as well as re-implementing domestic subsidy programs in order to boost domestic spending.
Marisa expressed hope that the government would support training programs that would recruit new graduates and active seniors which would alleviate the problems of labor shortage in the tourism industry. (NNT)
