Thai tours still attract Vietnamese tourists despite chaos

A group of tourists of Fiditour have just finished touring Thailand and are waiting at Bangkok Airport for their flight to fly back to HCMC on Wednesday - Photo: Lam Le Phan

Many tourism companies in HCMC said their tours to Thailand still took place as scheduled. Plenty of Vietnamese visitors are in Bangkok at present but they remain safe while only a few tourist attractions in their travel programs have been changed as the tour operators want to avoid taking customers to venues with huge numbers of demonstrators.

“We still have daily tours heading for Thailand from HCMC. In Hanoi, two groups of our guests have just arrived in Thailand,” said Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing and public relations manager of Saigontourist Travel Service Company.

Lam Le Phan, tour guide of Fiditour, on Wednesday afternoon sent to the Daily a photo of a group of Fiditour customers who had just finished their tour in Thailand and were waiting for their return flight at Bangkok Airport to HCMC. Besides, Fiditour also has two other groups visiting Thailand now and they are still safe and sound.

According to Nguyen Minh Man, director of the communications department of Vietravel, his firm still run Thai tours daily. That is because there have been no warnings from the Tourism Authority of Thailand while tourism police officers are still working at tourism sites in Bangkok to protect visitors, Man explained.

“Normally, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will give warnings when the safety of tourists may be endangered but the authority has not given such a warning so far. Therefore, Thai tours still take place as usual,” he clarified.

However, several travel agencies have decided to halt Thai tours until the politic situation in the ASEAN country becomes stable.

“We have halted tours to Thailand set for departure from the end of this month until the middle of next month but the suspension is just temporary, meaning Thai tours will be back to business as soon as the situation changes for the better,” said Tu Quy Thanh, director of Lien Bang Travel Link.

Despite showing concern about the security situation in Thailand, numerous local customers have still continued booking tours to the nation for the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, many tourism companies reported.