Tourism sector apt to bear brunt of crisis

BANGKOK, June 19 (TNA) – Thailand’s tourism sector is expected to bear the major negative impact of the current economic crisis given the internal and external risk factors the country is now experiencing, according to a leading economist.

Speaking at a seminar on “Navigate Crisis, Adjust to Fight Global Economic Meltdown,” Siam Commercial Bank Executive Vice President Sethaput Suthiwart-Narueput, who heads the Economic and Business Intelligence Unit, said the ongoing global economic recession had taken its toll on various sectors in Thailand.

The country’s industrial and export sectors had been hit by the recession, but there was a signal that the impacts had nearly hit the bottom.

He said tourism is the sector that worried him most since it had been directly impacted by the recession and the ongoing spread of H1N1 influenza worldwide.

Worse still, there is the large number of employees working in this sector where 80 per cent of the operators are small-and medium-size enterprises.

So, it had directly affected the employment and the local consumption.

Given these factors, he projected the Thai economy would shrink 5 per cent for this year. The economic recovery would be slower than usual because the crisis stemmed from the financial sector collapse.

Mr. Sethaput said it would take time to restore consumption, spending and purchasing power in the United States, Europe and Japan, which are major export destinations of Thailand and many other countries. (TNA)