Hotel And Airline Closures Mount Across Thailand

We’ve often written about the adage “you can’t stay there, if you can’t get there” but the current Thai situation has travelers unable to get anywhere, and if they can, it’s possible the hotel they imagined staying in, might be closed.

Yesterday, making headlines was Thailand’s Asset World Corp announcing the temporary closure of five properties, namely the Bangkok Marriott Marqius Queen’s Park, Le Meridien Bangkok, DoubleTree by Hilton Sukhumvit, Okura Prestige and Marriott Surawongse.

This came on the heels of Bill Heinecke’s Minor International announcement that the group was prepared to close selected hotels across Thailand.

While the aviation industry is reeling on news that Thai Airways international  is suspending overseas flights and closing a number of offices. In addition, subsidiary Thai Smile will assume domestic TG’s flights between Bangkok and Phuket, Krabi and Chiang Mai.

Thailand’s government will implement emergency powers tomorrow Thursday the 25^th of March until the end of April. Many Phuket hotels and tourism businesses are awaiting word on the force majeure provision that will likely see a number of hotels opt to close temporarily.

As the COVID-19 crisis is set to move into April, the island’s hospitality trade is coming to the realization that the impending low-season has arrived and with constrained airlift, they are better off to weather the storm by temporarily closing for the next few months until the return of seasonal shoulder trade in mid to late June, or possibly beyond.