Feature: Pandemic silences Thai New Year on tourists-favored street

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, April 14, 2021
Adjust font size:

by Wang Yaguang

BANGKOK, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Devoid of foreign tourists, the Thai capital's once-bustling Khaosan Road looks like a ghost town, lying quiet during the country's most important annual festival Songkran.

During these days in normal years, the Khaosan Road would be chaotic with people going bananas in water splashing and exchange of water gunfire to celebrate the Thai New Year. This year, however, there are only lonely pedestrians and cats napping on the empty road.

Businesses that line the 410-meter stretch, famously known as a paradise for foreign backpackers with cheap accommodation, street food and nightlife, were on the cusp of life and death, while a new wave of COVID-19 outbreak added to the misery.

Ponsak Yenwattankun, the 50-year-old manager of the Lucky Beer, sat in the closed restaurant on the Khaosan Road, celebrating Songkran with his remaining employees.

Ponsak has run the restaurant for years. He used to see crowded customers extend out into the street in the pre-pandemic days. "After the first wave of pandemic emerged last year, our revenues were halved. But now we have no customers and no revenues, and have to close the restaurant."

Speaking of his new year wish, Ponsak said he hoped that business could resume, lifting them out of the hopeless situation.

Like Ponsak's restaurant, pubs and stores that previously relied on foreign tourists faced grim prospects. Many had to shut down, while others tried to stay afloat on the street, which could generate a daily income of 20 million baht (about 636,000 U.S. dollars), and 100 million baht during Songkran in pre-pandemic days, according to the Khaosan Road Business Association.

The Thai government canceled public Songkran celebrations this year for a second year amid a growing outbreak in the country, where new confirmed COVID-19 cases hit a daily record of 1,335 on Wednesday.

The new spike in infections forced the government to temporarily close entertainment venues in the capital city and 40 other provinces, and threatened to undermine plans to welcome back foreign tourists and boost domestic travel to support the tourism sector, a key income earner.

Thailand planned to reopen resort island Phuket from July and waiver quarantine for vaccinated visitors heading there. Similar measures might be expanded to other tourist hotspots, such as Pattaya and Koh Samui, from October this year.

The country has been closed to foreign visitors for a year, and managed to keep the numbers of infections and deaths at relatively low levels. Its total caseload has risen to 35,910 with 97 deaths as of Wednesday.

The government has pinned its hope on a return of foreign visitors to lift the economy from the deepest decline in more than two decades. The number of foreign tourist arrivals into Thailand plunged to 6.7 million in 2020 from nearly 40 million in 2019.

"No foreign tourists, no business," said Somchai Sijin, a driver of a three-wheeled motorized tuk-tuk parking at the entrance of Khaosan Road.

Driving around Bangkok for more than two hours, the 46-year-old only had one passenger and earned 60 baht, barely enough to cover the fuel cost. Having been in the business for 30 years, Somchai never expected that one day he would use the Khaosan Road as a place to take rest. Enditem

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
ChinaNews App Download
Print E-mail Bookmark and Share

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)

No comments.

Add your comments...

  • User Name Required
  • Your Comment
  • Enter the words you see:   
    Racist, abusive and off-topic comments may be removed by the moderator.
Send your storiesGet more from China.org.cnMobileRSSNewsletter