wowpow
September 19th, 2006, 10:56
AFP 19-Sep-06
HUNDREDS of holidays have been cancelled in Thailand and more economic pain is expected after weekend blasts ripped apart a tourist area, killing four people and wounding dozens, officials say. More bomb and arson attacks were carried out on Sunday night in the restive south, where a Muslim insurgency appears to be intensifying. Hundreds of foreigners fled the area following Saturday night's simultaneous bombings, hotel and tour operators said, warning that the region's tourism sector had been dealt a serious blow.
A receptionist at Hat Yai's Novotel Central Hotel said: ``Malaysian and Singapore tourists, the majority of our customers, have cancelled reservations, citing the bomb scares. ``Before this, we were fully booked every weekend.''
Thai police have yet to make any arrests over the attacks in the main southern tourist hub of Hat Yai, with one senior officer saying it would take time to investigate each of the six bombs. The unrest continued on Sunday night as militants burned buildings, including a daycare centre, and torched vehicles and school buildings.
They also tried to bomb a military convoy in southern Thailand's Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces gripped by the violence, police said. No one was hurt in the attacks, which police said were meant to sow fear. ``These were efforts by a group of people who want to see the public in chaos,'' said police Major General Yongyuth Charoenvanit.
Saturday's bombings killed four people a Canadian and three Thais. Health minister Pinit Jarusombat said 14 other foreigners were among the 72 wounded, including six Malaysians, three Singaporeans, three Britons, an Indian and an American.
The bombers targeted a strip of bars and restaurants popular with tourists in what experts say marked an escalation in the insurgency, which had so far targeted mainly police or military not civilians or foreigners.
``Apart from the cancellation of existing bookings, we are afraid that the latest attack in Songkhla (province) would affect tourists' decisions to come to Thailand,'' said Apichart Sankary, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
``If the Government fails to reassure tourists over the southern unrest, the overall tourism sector will be affected, especially along the Andaman coastline,'' Mr Apichart said, referring to the region that includes the popular resort islands of Phuket, Phi Phi and the province of Phang Nga.
Thailand's $US12 billion tourism sector is only just recovering from the tsunami of December 2004, which devastated much of that same coastline.
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has offered to reward police who make arrests over the Hat Yai bombings, which he said were linked to the insurgency in the country's south.
In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay decried the bomb attacks in which Canadian teacher Jesse Lee Daniel, was killed. ``Canada strongly condemns the senseless, brutal, co-ordinated violence in the south of Thailand,'' he said. ``Canada will continue to cooperate with Thailand and other partners, both regionally and globally, to counter the threat of terrorism. ``We encourage the Government of Thailand to continue to work toward a peaceful solution to terrorist violence in the south.''
More than 1400 people have been killed in the conflict since January 2004. The conflict began in the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani but Hat Yai is in a fourth province, Songkla. AFP
Sad but true it takes the killing and injury or foreigners and farangs to really hit tourism.
HUNDREDS of holidays have been cancelled in Thailand and more economic pain is expected after weekend blasts ripped apart a tourist area, killing four people and wounding dozens, officials say. More bomb and arson attacks were carried out on Sunday night in the restive south, where a Muslim insurgency appears to be intensifying. Hundreds of foreigners fled the area following Saturday night's simultaneous bombings, hotel and tour operators said, warning that the region's tourism sector had been dealt a serious blow.
A receptionist at Hat Yai's Novotel Central Hotel said: ``Malaysian and Singapore tourists, the majority of our customers, have cancelled reservations, citing the bomb scares. ``Before this, we were fully booked every weekend.''
Thai police have yet to make any arrests over the attacks in the main southern tourist hub of Hat Yai, with one senior officer saying it would take time to investigate each of the six bombs. The unrest continued on Sunday night as militants burned buildings, including a daycare centre, and torched vehicles and school buildings.
They also tried to bomb a military convoy in southern Thailand's Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces gripped by the violence, police said. No one was hurt in the attacks, which police said were meant to sow fear. ``These were efforts by a group of people who want to see the public in chaos,'' said police Major General Yongyuth Charoenvanit.
Saturday's bombings killed four people a Canadian and three Thais. Health minister Pinit Jarusombat said 14 other foreigners were among the 72 wounded, including six Malaysians, three Singaporeans, three Britons, an Indian and an American.
The bombers targeted a strip of bars and restaurants popular with tourists in what experts say marked an escalation in the insurgency, which had so far targeted mainly police or military not civilians or foreigners.
``Apart from the cancellation of existing bookings, we are afraid that the latest attack in Songkhla (province) would affect tourists' decisions to come to Thailand,'' said Apichart Sankary, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
``If the Government fails to reassure tourists over the southern unrest, the overall tourism sector will be affected, especially along the Andaman coastline,'' Mr Apichart said, referring to the region that includes the popular resort islands of Phuket, Phi Phi and the province of Phang Nga.
Thailand's $US12 billion tourism sector is only just recovering from the tsunami of December 2004, which devastated much of that same coastline.
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has offered to reward police who make arrests over the Hat Yai bombings, which he said were linked to the insurgency in the country's south.
In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay decried the bomb attacks in which Canadian teacher Jesse Lee Daniel, was killed. ``Canada strongly condemns the senseless, brutal, co-ordinated violence in the south of Thailand,'' he said. ``Canada will continue to cooperate with Thailand and other partners, both regionally and globally, to counter the threat of terrorism. ``We encourage the Government of Thailand to continue to work toward a peaceful solution to terrorist violence in the south.''
More than 1400 people have been killed in the conflict since January 2004. The conflict began in the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani but Hat Yai is in a fourth province, Songkla. AFP
Sad but true it takes the killing and injury or foreigners and farangs to really hit tourism.