Many tourists have postponed trips to Thailand, and some tourists already on holiday along the Andaman coast have decided to leave earlier than scheduled, operators have reported.
The president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), Sisdivachr Chewarattanaporn said that tour operators are continuing to monitor the situation.
ATTA believes that confidence among tourists will return to normal within a month and stated that related agencies must be effective and report the facts clearly as the main problem is unclear reports about the circumstances.
The chairman of the Tourism Council of Thailand, Kongkrit Hiranyakit agreed that April 11 had had a psychological impact on tourists who were planning to travel to the coastal areas of the Andaman Sea, as they are concerned about their safety.
However, he too believes that the impact will be short-lived and that the situation will return to normal fairly fast.
The president of the Association of Domestic Travel, Maiyarut Pheerayakoses, urged the government not to worry that sounding a warning could cause panic among tourists.
Ms Maiyarut said that giving an early warning was always better than coping with the loss of lives and assets should a disaster strike without any warning being given.
She said tour operators monitor tsunami warnings closely and will always work to ensure the safety of tourists.
The director of the Economic and Business Forecast Centre (EBFC) of the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thanawat Polwichai said although there was no tsunami on
April 11, the incident had made tourists very nervous.
Mr Thanawat said the EBFC will evaluate the impact of the incident to see whether it leads to significant cancellations of travel to areas that received the tsunami alert.
He noted that Thailand’s Andaman coastal provinces attract roughly a million tourists in a month, generating some B20 to B30 billion baht in revenue for the region.