THE SUN is shining. Smiling Thais are getting water pistols ready for the Songkran New Year holiday, when people throw or shoot water at each other in a fun few days of widescale splashing.
The scene on Khao San Road, a backpacker favourite in Bangkok, is business as usual, as people drench each other with water and get into the mood.
But in broader terms, the tourists are hanging back, horrified by the brutal street fighting at the weekend in which 21 people were killed. No water pistols, but real live ammunition.
Thailand, which relies on tourism for 6 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), is struggling to keep the tourists coming in the face of demonstrations by red-shirted opposition groups.
Three million Thais generate direct and indirect income from the tourism business. The political unrest is expected to shave between 1 per cent and 2 per cent off GDP growth this year.
Tourism industry spokesman Apichart Sankary said that if the street protests continued the number of foreign visitors could drop to 14.5 million this year, against an earlier projection of 15.5 million.
A bar owner called Princy complained that visitor numbers were down. “There are much less tourists this year. ‘Red shirts’ should stop what they are doing, otherwise I will lose more money,” he said.
A hotel manager at one of the city’s top hotels said occupancy rates were drastically down.
“What can we do? This looks bad and people are cancelling. We should have up to 70 per cent occupancy, but instead we have 25 per cent,” he said.
China has cancelled all charter flights to Thailand for the Songkran holiday, which was due to bring in 15,000 people.
The loss of income is estimated at more than 10 billion baht (€230 million) as shopping malls closed doors and foreign clients at hotels in the Rajprasong area were scared away by protests.
Forty-three countries, including Ireland, have issued travel advisories to their citizens following the declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok last Thursday.
The ongoing crisis has hit touristm-related shares on the Thai stock exchanges, with shares in the national carrier dropping 9 per cent.
The Bangkok Postargued that the unrest gave the lie to the cliched image of Thailand as a mild-mannered and peace-loving place full of smiling people. "The Thai people are mere mortals who, like people anywhere, relish a good confrontation in an attempt to force regime change," it said.