Thailand Floods Devastate Tourist Industry: Possible $800 Million in Losses

BANGKOK -- A week ago, the Tourism Department released a report showing losses to Thailand's tourism industry, because of the country's devastating floods, may be worse than originally feared. A loss of 25 billion baht, or $800 million, is likely if floods continue through December.

Then today, the Director of the Provincial Tourism Authority of Thailand said the city of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and under flood waters for three months, lost six billion baht, or $192 million. A massive amount for a small city that's one of Thailand's most popular tourist destinations. To say Thais are worried about the huge loss of tourists is an understatement.

My boyfriend is a Thai tour guide who works for a large American tour company that runs many tours in Thailand every month. In October, as floods seeped into Bangkok, not only did my boyfriend's house in Rangsit end up under waist-deep water, he was also worried about losing work.

Groups of American tourists arrive in Bangkok every 18 days. They then spend 16 days being shown around Thailand and Cambodia by my boyfriend. When floods hit, several tourists on each tour group he runs canceled and others called him considering canceling, as they were worried about having to wade through flood water. That he talked them into coming on the tour says a lot for his people skills but, that other guides in the company couldn't shows how many tourists simply decided to stay away.

But, even when tourists arrived, his problems didn't stop there. Several trip destinations in Thailand, including Ayutthaya, had to be changed as these places were now under water. His company eventually decided to have the group spend less time in Bangkok, avoid Ayutthaya completely (they had to, the whole city was under eight feet of water), and spend a few extra days in Cambodia instead. It meant a lot of work and reorganization for my boyfriend, but at least he kept his job. For now.

In the past few years though, Thailand has had a myriad of problems that have kept tourists away. The enormous tsunami that hit southern Thailand in 2004 killed more than 10,000 people and severely damaged Thailand's tourist industry. A year and a half later, Thailand had a military coup. Bird flu followed that.

In 2008, the People's Alliance for Democracy held massive anti-government protests shutting down all of the country's airports for a week, and stranding over 700,000 tourists in Thailand. Finally, last year, more anti-government demonstrations, this time from a different group, ended in some tourist areas in downtown Bangkok being shut down completely, as more than 50,000 protesters camped out there for over a month. The situation ended when 91 civilians were shot and killed by the Thai military. And, with every bullet fired, there went Thailand's tourist industry. Again.

And now we have floods.

To say Thailand's tourism industry can't catch a break… an understatement? You betcha.