Known for tracking over 14 million travel bookings daily, ForwardKeys' implications on the effects of recent Bangkok bombings on international bookings in Thailand are obviously worrying to the general tourism industry and to the Thai government. Based on their findings, ForwardKeys reported that the second biggest economy in Southeast Asia is likely to suffer significantly from the sequential bombings that occurred in highly populated tourist areas on 17 and 18 August 2015.
The analysis on the impacts of the catastrophic event were carried out on 24th August 2015, 5 days after the last bombing tragedy with the main aim of finding out how these bombings would affect international bookings in Thailand. The widely recognized analysis was based on Air Reservation Data property of ForwardKeys, and below are the main highlights of the findings.
Asian Tourists
The report indicates that the bombings have led to a 65% fall in issued bookings from Far Asia. Most withdrawals came from Greater China, where cancelled bookings stood at a monstrous 142%. Cancelled bookings from Japan stood at 95% while Singapore had a fall of 88%.
These cancellations, which occurred immediately after the bombings heavily affected the business travel segment, with China's cancellations over-passing the bookings. Despite this enormous decrease from Asia, ForwardKeys suggested that Asian markets will continue to grow for future arrivals in the coming 6 months.
Europe and America
The findings indicate that the second attack on 18th August acted as the last nail in the coffin as far as international bookings to Thailand are concerned. It did not only deepen the impacts of the first bombing, but largely increased cancellations from Europe and America. ForwardKeys findings show that international bookings to the country from the Americas dropped to 15%, which has never been witnessed in recent times. Europe bookings dropped to 30% showing clearly that the event had huge setbacks on Thailand tourism industry.
Middle East, Oceania and Africa
Even though Middle East, Oceania and Africa have low shares of the Bangkok tourism, their input could not be ignored. The 6% share of Thai tourists from Middle East dropped to a whopping -44%, while Oceania's 8% share dropped to -51%. Additionally, Africa's 4% share dropped to -4%.
Despite the resilience of the Thai tourism industry, these negative impacts may be witnessed for the next six months.