Tourism in Thailand’s South booming

SONGKHLA, Dec 9 (TNA) - Tourism business in the South of Thailand is flourishing, especially in Hat Yai district, while many thousands of visitors in the country’s North are facing chilly weather. Somchart Pimthanapoonporn, president of Tourism Business Federation of Songkhla, said he projected that tourism business in Hat Yai, known as shopping paradise for tourists, would continue booming until the end of this month when tourists visit the district to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Several standard hotels are already fully booked during the current long weekend holidays, Mr. Somchart said. Monday is a public holiday in Thailand due to the Constitution Day. Tourists are seen visiting shopping areas in Hat Yai while many are interested in sitting on the Cable Car to view the beauty of the district. Also, many of them travel to see Samila beach in Songkhla. Business entrepreneurs are reportedly doing brisk business. While it is quite sunny in the South, Pongsak Wangsamer, governor of the northernmost province of Chiang Rai, along with provincial officials distributed blankets to needy people and hill-tribesmen in 16 villages as temperature atop mountains in the night drops to less than 10 degrees Celsius. A survey was conducted and it was found that more than 260,000 poor people in Chiang Rai are suffering from the severe cold as they do not have enough blankets. Officials of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation office in the northern capital of Chiang Mai are preparing to request the provincial governor to declare three districts including Chom Thong, Fang and Omkoi disaster zones due to the sudden cold as temperature dropped to lower than 15 degrees Celsius since the past three days. Already, more than 30,000 families have been affected while concerned officials have initially distributed about 700 blankets to the poor families. Officials said poor people living in all the 25 districts in Chiang Mai need more than 300,000 blankets. Most of them live on high plains or atop the mountains. (TNA)