The bumpy recovery road of Southeast Asia's tourism industry

 The bumpy recovery road of Southeast Asia's tourism industry

Hotel and restaurant owners in the area are fed up with the lack of Chinese visitors, the frequently changing entry rules and the shortage of workers.

Previously, the famous tourist island of Koh Samui of Thailand had a lot of foreign tourists. But this year, it's "like a graveyard," as Virach Pongchababnapa, a local hotelier, describes it. Tourists have disappeared. Hotels and restaurants are closed. "No life, no movement," sighed Mr. Virach.

2022 is said to be the year that Southeast Asia's tourism industry begins to recover. However, the Omicron variant delayed this process. Late last year, several countries began accepting tourists for the first time in nearly two years, but closed when Omicron appeared.

This month, the borders begin to open up again. Visitors who have completed all the injections will not need to be isolated when entering Thailand from February 1 and the Philippines from February 10. Thailand is expecting 300,000 visitors this month, a modest number compared with the pre-pandemic monthly average of 3 million. But anyway, it's a start.

An empty beach at a resort in Koh Samui, Surat Thani province, Thailand on July 3, 2021. Photo: Bangkok Post

An empty beach at a resort in Koh Samui, Surat Thani province, Thailand on July 3, 2021. Photo: Bangkok Post

According to the World Trade and Tourism Council, Southeast Asia's economy is more dependent on tourism than any other region in the world, including the Caribbean. In 2019, the last year that people could move about freely, tourism contributed nearly 12% of the region's GDP. The industry accounts for about one-seventh of Cambodia's economy and employs one-fifth of Thailand's workforce.

Foreign customers are the lifeblood of businesses here. They contribute half of all tourism spending, although these countries also have a strong domestic tourism industry. Domestic customers only account for 33% and sometimes only 5% of the number, depending on the location. Meanwhile, Covid-19 has seriously reduced foreign visitors. Compared to 2019, the number of international visitors to Southeast Asia will decrease by 82% in 2020 and 98% in 2021.

The situation is expected to improve somewhat this year. When this area opens, European and American tourists will flock back to the sandy beaches of Bali and Phuket. But the recovery is still fragile. Most tourists in Southeast Asia come from elsewhere in Asia. China, the largest source of visitors, has shown no sign of allowing its citizens to travel abroad.

This absence has taken a toll on Southeast Asia's economy. By 2020, tourism's contribution to regional GDP has more than halved. Revenue from international tourists fell 78%, more than any other region in the world. Many businesses have closed.

In May, when the Covid-19 wave swept through Cambodia, about 47% of small and medium-sized businesses supported by the Asia Foundation - an American diplomatic organization - closed. According to the Tourism Council of Thailand, a quarter of tourism companies in the country have closed permanently since the pandemic.

Many people have no jobs. Seven million of the 43 million tourism jobs that existed in 2019 disappeared a year later. Many people who can still hold on will have their wages and working hours reduced. The International Labor Organization (ILO) says hours in the Philippines have fallen by an average of 38%. Chihoko Asada-Miyakawa, ILO Regional Director, said the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector in Asia and the Pacific "is a major disaster".

However, even if international tourists return to pre-pandemic numbers overnight, the difficulty for hoteliers like Mr. Virach remains and even worsens.