As Covid-19 spreads, more hotels in Phuket close
Phuket tourism and hospitality business are hit again by the current Covid-19 outbreak with more hotels closing down. Many hotels are starting to close again due to a significant number of bookings cancellations. Most of them can’t handle the costs to stay open and some are expected to permanently shut down.
Bill Barnett from c9Hotelworks.com says that the latest outbreak is hitting the island’s struggling hotel industry particularly hard.
“Phuket’s hotel industry is now being hit by a second wave that in many ways is more damaging than the past 6 months. With cash flow muted, and the flow of travellers from Bangkok now slowed to a trickle, our hardest yards out ahead in Q1 2020. While the vaccine will trigger green shoots in the industry, the task as hand is now to survive the next 2 months.”
Kongsak Khoopongsakorn, President of the Thailand Hotels Association Southern chapter, also said the situation for hotel operators in Phuket is bad.
“From questioning about 10 hotel operators, three of them have confirmed that they are closing again because they cannot handle the cost and loss. This year, some hotel operators may announce to sell their hotels at prices that are 50-60% less than the value of the hotel.”
Although hotel operators saw a hope to keep their businesses alive with the government’s domestic tourism boosting campaign, “We Travel Together”, the number of tourists coming to Phuket are lower than expected. According to the AoT Phuket, the number of domestic passengers passing through Phuket airport this year was down 69.37% compared to last year.
SOURCE: Phuket News
