"Thailand gives the appearance of strong political instability and tension within the region, primarily with Cambodia," said Bill Heinecke, chairman of Minor International, reports the Bangkok Post.
Speaking at a session titled ‘Beyond Recovery: Transforming Thailand’s Tourism for a Sustainable and High-Value Future’ at Thailand Focus 2025, Mr Heinecke said that since border clashes started last month, Minor hotels in Thailand have recorded fewer foreign tourists, including from the US, which issued a travel warning for Thailand.
The company’s two hotels in Cambodia also posted plummeting occupancy rates, he said.
Cambodia has typically been a very powerful tourism tool that benefits Thailand, as travellers visit the former via connecting flights in the latter.
Thailand’s private sector has made over B50 billion in equity investments in Cambodia, yet now there is growing anti-Thai sentiment that needs to be resolved, said Mr Heinecke.
He said the border tension has led to all logistics being shifted to Vietnam in order to get into retail or restaurants in Cambodia, with Minor having more than 100 outlets of The Pizza Company, Swensen’s and food businesses.
Accordingly, its hotels in Vietnam recorded an increased occupancy rate due to the rifts between Thailand and Cambodia.
He believes total foreign arrivals in Thailand could drop by 10% from last year, further impacting hotel occupancy rates.
"It is in the interests of all parties to bring this about peacefully as quickly as possible so it doesn’t impact the economy any further," he said.
"The full impact of this is not yet being measured, but it will start to be harmful for all Thai businesses in the third quarter of this year if things are not resolved quickly."
He said the government should give away more free domestic flights, beyond their planned 200,000 flights, to foreigners to boost tourism.
Chai Eamsiri, chief executive of Thai Airways International, said that based on talks with Chinese partners, they are still not confident about safety in Thailand, and restoring tourism confidence is the major short-term priority.
Mr Chai said that although the airline is still recording strong load factors across its Chinese routes, which operate 42 weekly flights to five destinations, most of them are connecting passengers and not stopping in Thailand.
"Their economy is still not bad. A lot of travellers fly from China to places other than Thailand," he said.
Damien Pfirsch, chief commercial officer at Agoda, said that Thailand should also invest in infrastructure which connects tourists to other second-tier cities, allowing them to learn new local experiences, as many of them have already visited Thailand many times already.
This also ensures sustainable tourism by distributing travellers to less crowded cities and reducing the risk of overtourism, he said.