Bangkok is again easily accessible for tourists!
The capital of holiday country Thailand is again accessible.
The flooding that swept parts of Bangkok and the surrounding area in recent weeks has eased and all major tourist attractions are passable. The travel advice to Bangkok was positively adjusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week.
Tourist attractions
The tourist highlights of Bangkok, such as the famous backpacker street Khao San Road, the Royal Palace and China Town are normally accessible and can be visited without restriction. This also applies to the well-known shopping centers Siam Square, MBK, Siam Paragon and Central World. Ferry services on the Chao Praya River are expected to gradually resume this week.
From the center of Bangkok, the highways to and from the international airport and to the southeast (to the beach resorts of Pattaya, Rayong and Chanthaburi) are normally accessible. The other tourist places in Thailand are also, with one exception, easily accessible.
Itineraries
Tours through Thailand offered by travel organizations, which have often been adapted in recent times, largely have their normal schedule. While the decline in bookings during the period of the floods was fortunately limited, both travel organizations and the Thai Tourist Board expect a growing demand for Thailand-journey.
The Thai Tourist Board says that travelers and tour operators have dealt with the situation flexibly and creatively. Especially now that the travel advice for Bangkok does not include any restrictions, the Tourist Office expects a 'catch up' for bookings for the months of December, January and February in the coming weeks. Consumers increasingly book later, which is a blessing in disguise, and when it gets a little colder, the need for a warm climate at an affordable price also grows.
Expansion of flight offer Thailand
The unprecedented popularity of Thailand as a holiday destination was further underlined by ArkeFly's announcement that it would be conducting flights twice a week from Amsterdam to Bangkok and Phuket from June next year (ArkeFly will fly to Thailand next summer). By directly serving the largest Thai holidayisland, the company is the only one in the Netherlands. KLM and China Airlines maintain daily direct flights to Bangkok, while EVA Air maintains this connection three times a week.
What's this? Bangkok is easily accessible AGAIN? So that was no different. In addition, there have been no problems for 99% of the tourist spots mentioned here. The highways to and from the international flatfield and the southeast have also been unaffected by the floods, but it is good to know that they are still open. Ironically, there is no mention whatsoever of the current road and rail situation between the north and Bangkok; there have been some problems there.
I completely agree with you, you would almost expect that people at “Thailandblog” know better.
@ Robert, Thai Tourist Board press release: http://www.tourpress.nl/nieuws/2/Vervoer/21695/Bangkok-weer-goed-bereisbaar
Send your comments there. Attn: Harry Betist, Director of the Thai Tourist Board.
We can't compete with that. If he doesn't know? Who then?
Maybe you should ask him to call you first before he writes something. 😉
Well, if this message is specifically intended for those journalists who wrongly wrote that half of Bangkok/Thailand was flooded and speculated about the most disastrous scenarios, then it may have been deliberately worded that way. Like 'it's over guys, he can go again!' Doesn't change the fact that it creates a wrong suggestion. I'll pull Harry's bag.
Please blow hard! I had a run-in with him once, so I want to help pull 😉
Then I will help push….
Khun Peter wrote: Work hard please! I had a run-in with him once, so I'm willing to help pull
I can understand that you had a collision with Harry Betist, after all, years ago he was one of the bosses of the Stena Line Hoek of Holland Harwich.
I recently emailed him about an “auction” on the Thai Traffic Bureau site, I'm still waiting for a response.
It is nice that Bangkok is again easily accessible for tourists, and it already was, but it depends on how you went there, money has to come in and the TAT is doing everything it can to make things so rosy.
Unfortunately , more attention is paid to the tourist income than to the many people around Bangkok whose houses are still under water .
Not only the houses are under water, but the streets look like a war zone. Have driven through it (through the water) and it's really sad to see that they've lost everything.
The streets are partly dry (at least the elevated ones and they live there in tents on the highways) but the gunk on the road is still there. The dry gunk now hangs in the air and is not fresh to breathe, certainly not for a tourist who is not used to anything.
The tap water now contains extra chlorine, which is not healthy either, but better than contaminated. The illnesses are not too bad (I don't hear anything about it) but it doesn't seem wise to let the many tourists come yet. Traffic is slowly starting to get going again, but the staffing at many companies / institutions is not yet as usual.
People are cleaning the streets / houses en masse with lots of soap and chemicals and they will eventually all end up in the sea (near PAttaya). I don't think it's advisable to plan your beach holiday there now.
Along the roads there are huge piles of furniture and rubbish rotting, dead dogs in the water or along the road, other dogs eating it… not really something a tourist dreams of, I think.
You can come and celebrate a holiday, but if you know that many people are close to despair and everything has been lost, it still gives a bad taste.
Dear Nok,
First of all, it is of course terrible for the people who are and have had to deal with this serious flooding and have lost all their belongings, let that be clear.
But in addition, the affected areas are not the tourist areas. Sukhumvit, Silom, Siam Square, Khaosan, it is life as usual there and for the tourist, except for some sandbags as precautions, nothing to notice.
I have several Thai friends and acquaintances who live in one of the affected areas, work in the travel industry themselves or earn money from tourism in another way. Do you think staying away from tourists is the solution? The Thai (and I'm not talking about the TAT) like to see tourists come, even now, and that is no different than, for example, just after the crackdown in the center of last year.
And after the devastating tsunami, weren't tourists all called upon to come back to Thailand quickly in order to provide much-needed income again?
And well, I wouldn't plan a beach holiday to Pattaya anyway, plenty of beach destinations that are much nicer, but that's my opinion.
It would be better for the economy if the tourists would come back en masse, of course. But those tourists are already getting sick of the air conditioning! or bacteria in the water that is sprayed over the terraces via fans. By tourists I also mean the elderly, babies and everything you saw on the plane when you flew here.
Those dust clouds that now hang in Bkk also swirl in the food, drinks, stick to cars and taxis and therefore get everywhere. It's the silt from the river that has flooded just about everything and left it to rot. The excrement of the population is also included in this, so also from the sick.
Those sandbags stay wet and smelly for a long time, so they are still full of river water including all bacteria and diseases. If an epidemic breaks out, the turnips are ready and the tourists (who have no resistance at all) will certainly be caught by it. Then Thailand will certainly receive a blow that can last for years.
Easy to say that Robert should send his comments to Harry Betist. You as a Thailand blog are taking over this message right?? Do you just blindly assume that whatever Mr. Betist says but is correct ?
Oh yes, the NL media…..a few weeks ago I read somewhere a headline 'Bangkok is under water'. The entire center has been dry all this time, life as usual. Also in the part of Ladkrabang where I live, nothing has happened (fortunately) all this time.
@ Krung Thep, yes we are taking over press releases. After all, we don't have ten editors who can check and verify everything before posting. Do you have time left?
Come on Peter, that's a bit lame. As if you don't know that Bangkok has been easily accessible all this time.