The Bank of Thailand expects the country’s third coronavirus wave to reduce the occupancy rate at the country’s hotels to only 9 percent this month.
The BOT said May 2 that a survey of hotels found occupancy rates of 18 percent in April and only 9 percent in May. At that rate, 47 percent of hotels would go out of business within three months.
Because more than 51 percent of reservations were canceled in April, Songkran proved much less successful than anticipated, the joint BOT-Thai Hotels Association survey concluded.
Eighty percent of operators consider the current third wave more damaging than the second, which ran from Christmas until the end of January.
Only 46 percent of the country’s hotels currently are open normally, with 13 percent shut temporarily and the others with curtailed hours or capacity.
Meanwhile, about 39 percent of hotels still open reported less than 10 percent of normal income and more than 25 percent half normal income.
The THA repeatedly has called for government assistance, including employee wage subsidies, debt moratoriums and tourism stimulus plans.
