Chuck Kuhn's Asia in Photos: VietNamNet - Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses | Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses

Sunday, November 27, 2011

VietNamNet - Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses | Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses

Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses

VietNamNet Bridge – The historic flood in Thailand has caused big worries to Vietnamese businesses. Travel firms and automobile manufacturers have suffered from the flood first.

The headache to travel firms

Travel firms in HCM City have decided to cancel the tours to Thailand indefinitely, saying that the tours will be resumed only when the floods in Bangkok go down, instead of earlier this week as previously planned. This is the longest tour cancellation since the travel firm began providing tours to Thailand.

Vietravel, which is considered as the biggest organizer of the tours to Thailand, decided to cancel the tours to the country from October 26 to November 6. However, the travel firm now still does not know when it can organize the tours to Thailand again.

“Travelers update information about the flood regularly and they will not book tours until they hear that everything goes back to the normal track. Therefore, the tours to Thailand cannot be kicked off,” said Nguyen Minh Man, a senior executive of Vietravel.

In general, Vietravel has 100 clients who book tours to Thailand every day. However, no one has booked the tours over the last two weeks.

Lai Minh Duy, General Director of TST Tourist, said that the firm is awaiting the flight schedule from Vietnam Airlines, and the updated information from the Thai Tourism Administration to decide the time for restarting tours to Thailand.

In previous years, Duy said, the travel firm organized tours to Thailand for three groups of travelers this season. The travelers mostly went on Bangkok-Pattaya route.

Prior to that, Saigontourist announced the decision to suspend the tours to Thailand until November 5. However, until now, it still has not made decision about when the tours can be kicked off again. Some big groups of travelers, who booked tours before, have agreed to delay the departure time to the end of November 2011. Meanwhile, 50 percent of travelers have demanded money back, because they cannot take other tours.

The travel firm said that it serves at least one group of travelers to Thailand (20 people per group) every day.

Travel firms’ representatives all said that the tours to Thailand have never before suffered such big impacts. In the past, despite demonstrations or uprisings, travelers still booked tours to Thailand, or only delayed the tours for a short time.

Meanwhile, this time, the tours have been suspended for two weeks already, and it is still unclear when to resume the tours

Automobile industry also suffers

Thailand is now considered a big automobile production center in the region, which is the car part supply source of many automobile factories. Nearly all the automobile joint ventures in Vietnam have to import car parts from Thailand to make domestic assembling. This explains why Vietnamese automobile factories, which have been heavily relying on the car parts from Thailand, have suffered from the supply interruption.

Akito Tachibana, General Director of Toyota Motor Vietnam TMV, said that 2011 is a very difficult year for TMV. Due to the output cut, TMV may fail to obtain the targeted revenue in 2011.

Due to the floods in Thailand, Honda and Toyota have to halt production for the last many days, because their factories have been attacked by the flood, or because the supply from Ayutthaya and Pathumthani has been interrupted. This has had big impacts on the production bases of the two manufacturers in Vietnam.

Mr Akito Tachibana said TMV now has to reconsider the production due to the delay in car part supply from Thailand. In the immediate time, Innova and Fortuner are the two models which most suffer, because they need a lot of car part imports from Thailand.

TMV has announced that the normal production would be resumed from December 19, but everything still depends on the flood in Thailand.

Akira Makino from Honda Vietnam has also said that the manufacturer has to reconsider the production plan in November.

Source: TBKTSG

VietNamNet - Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses | Flood in Thailand raises worries to Vietnamese businesses

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“I can’t say what made me fall in love with Vietnam - that a woman’s voice can drug you; that everything is so intense. The colors, the taste, even the rain. Nothing like the filthy rain in London. They say whatever you’re looking for, you will find here. They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes, but the rest has got to be lived. The smell: that’s the first thing that hits you, promising everything in exchange for your soul. And the heat. Your shirt is straightaway a rag. You can hardly remember your name, or what you came to escape from. But at night, there’s a breeze. The river is beautiful. You could be forgiven for thinking there was no war; that the gunshots were fireworks; that only pleasure matters. A pipe of opium, or the touch of a girl who might tell you she loves you. And then, something happens, as you knew it would. And nothing can ever be the same again.”
― Graham Greene, The Quiet American

Tips on Travel to Vietnam

It's always warm in Southeast Asia apart from high mountains, so leave the heavy clothing at home. Cotton and breathable fabrics are always better than synthetics -- although cotton does wrinkle a lot when traveling! December through April is roughly the dry season in that region, although it can still rain a little. December is a good time to go in terms of temperature -- cooler than in the humid summertime. Either way, wearing more clothing (shirt sleeves and long pants) is always more respectful towards the Asian culture, especially when visiting temples and rural areas.