Quote Originally Posted by kittyboy
To bigaussieal's point - thailand has spent a fortune over the years promoting its tourism industry. I suspect that those who have travelled here or are seasoned travelers will not pay much mind to the domestic political situation. However, those who are a bit less well travelled may become uneasy about thailand or perceive that it is somehow a less friendly place and then book their travel elsewhere.

Again just my comments and opinion - see below for my opinion on opinions.

Yes, I agree. Americans, especially those who have not done much travelling, tend to run away/ stay away from places as soon as there's a hint of a problem and the British are nearly as bad. The chicken runs I've witnessed in South Africa, Rhodesia andd that region as well as in the Middle East & Pakistan were primarily Brits running from pillar to post,and of course the Americans were long gone by then. But over the past few years, based on a highly unscientific measure of who I've seen and overheard around Pattaya, Americans and the British make up a fairly small percentage of those walking about ... except when the American Navy is in town of course.

There are a lot of German residents where I stay and a fair number of Russian and Middle Easterners around here apparently on holiday. They seem to be quite content going about their business despite all the carry-on in the news.

Probably the Russians and other Eastern Europeans,maybe Scandanavians, Indians, Chinese and so on from Asian countries, will keep coming unless there's a major upheaval. While western tour organizers are likely to cancel or redirect tour groups, I would guess others are less flexible and not as eager to pull out of existing arrangements.

It will undoubtedly impact tourism and all those employed directly or indirectly in businesses serving tourists, but tourism will go on and it will probably recover if peace returns for awhile.

Loss of export business is likely to recover more slowly because businesses will find alternate sources for their needs.