No hotel-room cancelations at areas near bomb blasts

BANGKOK, February 16 (TNA) - The Thai Hotels Association (THA) reported on Thursday that the country's overall hotel occupancy rates have not yet been affected by Tuesday’s bomb blasts in Bangkok, including those in Sukhumvit and nearby areas adjacent to the explosion sites. According to THA President Prakit Chinamornpong, there have been no reports from hotels near the blast sites, mostly five-star ones, that reservations for their hotel rooms have been cancelled. The THA chief assessed, however, that the latest bombing incidents should, more or less, affect the recovering Thai tourism this year, after it had been hit by impacts from domestic political protests over the past few years and a massive flooding late last year. The THA president urged the Thai government to ensure that there would be no exacerbated reports on any incident by both government-run and private media in order not to cause public panic and to discourage international tourist arrivals in Thailand, particularly those from Japan and South Korea, two major Thai tourism markets in Asia where more than one million people visited Thailand last year alone. (TNA)