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Bangkok Floods Threaten China's National Day Golden Week, TAT Scrambles to Reassure Tourists
Reporter 欧亚时报编辑部
Days of torrential rain across Bangkok and its surrounding provinces have triggered severe flooding, prompting the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to warn that the number of Chinese visitors during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day "Golden Week" could fall by 5 to 10 percent, with a worst-case scenario of a 20 percent drop should the flooding worsen. The warning comes just days before China's October 1 holiday begins, forcing Thailand's tourism industry into an emergency public-relations push to protect confidence in one of its most important source markets. For a country so reliant on inbound tourism revenue, a natural disaster on the eve of a key holiday period cuts deeper than transport and hotel logistics — it strikes directly at overseas perceptions of the destination's overall safety.
Thai meteorological data show Bangkok was hit by continuous heavy rain from September 24 to 29, with roughly 320 millimetres falling over three days — nearly as much as the city typically receives in the whole of September. Thailand's Interior Ministry declared a flood emergency in Bangkok on September 26, and the Cabinet subsequently designated September 28 and 29 as special holidays in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan, urging residents to stay home and look after their families. Authorities say 42 provinces nationwide have been affected, with at least 23 deaths recorded since September 16 — four of them in Bangkok — and estimated damage of about $367 million.
Although the terminals and runways at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports themselves never shut down and both airports remained open, ground operations were thrown into disarray. Many Thai Airways ground staff, whose homes in flooded parts of eastern Bangkok sat under more than a metre of water, could not get to work, causing a severe baggage backlog — about 5,600 bags were left stranded — and pushing Suvarnabhumi's on-time performance below 3 percent over a two-day stretch. Thai Airways cut roughly 30 departures from Bangkok on September 29, about 30 percent of its scheduled flights, and said reduced operations would likely continue for at least three more days. The military expanded its support role at Suvarnabhumi, and U-Tapao airport was designated a full-time alternate for diverted flights.
Before the floods hit, TAT had high hopes for the Golden Week market. TAT Governor Thapanee said on September 12 that Thailand expected around 250,000 Chinese tourists during the combined 13-day Mid-Autumn and National Day period from September 25 to October 7, up 24 percent year-on-year, generating roughly 11.5 billion baht (about 2.33 billion yuan) in revenue, a 37 percent increase. For the National Day week alone (October 1-7), TAT had forecast about 137,000 Chinese arrivals, up 21 percent, bringing in around 4.2 billion baht. A sharp shortfall against those targets would directly undercut Thailand's tourism recovery just as the peak season begins.
Facing a "confidence crisis" fuelled by flood images spreading across Chinese social media, TAT moved quickly into damage control. Photos and videos of submerged roads and stranded vehicles have circulated widely on WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and even Toutiao and Baidu News, unsettling would-be travellers who had not yet departed. In response, TAT ran a daily situation-update campaign across WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Douyin from September 28 to 30, repeatedly stressing that Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports remained open and operating, and that major destinations such as Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai were entirely unaffected by the flooding — an effort to counter the spread of outdated or misleading images with official, first-hand information.
Despite the official reassurances, real traveller flows have already begun to shift. Industry sources say some Chinese visitors who had planned to visit Bangkok are rerouting to Krabi, Koh Samui and Hua Hin instead — keeping their spending inside Thailand but pulling it away from the capital's hotels, restaurants and retailers. Meanwhile, overall foreign arrivals to Thailand have already slipped, with recent figures showing visitor numbers running about 3.65 percent below earlier projections. Industry figures worry that if the Chinese Golden Week rebound fails to materialise on schedule, it would further weigh on fourth-quarter tourism performance.
On the relief front, Prime Minister Anutin, after returning from an overseas trip, pledged to speed up aid to flood victims. The Cabinet has approved more than 4 billion baht in emergency relief funding, including 9,000-baht payments per affected household under set criteria, while the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives have deployed pumps, trucks and rubber boats to drain water and evacuate stranded residents. To address longer-term flood risk, the Cabinet also approved a roughly 160-billion-baht, eight-year drainage upgrade project for Bangkok and its surrounding areas.
Thai officials broadly expect the worst of the standing water in Bangkok to recede within two to three days, with airline ground operations gradually returning to normal. Industry insiders say the next 72 hours — the critical window just before China's National Day holiday begins — will largely determine whether this confidence crisis can be contained. Local officials have separately warned that renewed heavy rain on September 29-30 could widen the shortfall among visitors from western Chinese markets to as much as 15-20 percent, underlining that the weather itself remains the biggest swing factor. If Bangkok's drainage proceeds smoothly, airport operations fully normalise, and the intensive Chinese-language social media campaign keeps up its momentum, TAT still believes it can hold the Golden Week shortfall in Chinese arrivals within its forecast 5-10 percent range, avoiding the worst-case 20 percent drop and preserving much of the boost this peak season is meant to give Thailand's economy.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand issued its own advisory around the same period, urging Chinese nationals in Thailand and those planning trips in the near term to closely follow heavy-rain warnings from Thai meteorological authorities, avoid low-lying, flood-prone roads in and around Bangkok, and confirm flight and destination weather conditions through official channels before travelling. The embassy's advisory echoed TAT's own updates, effectively giving Chinese travellers two parallel channels of official information during the flooding, and underscored how closely Beijing is watching the safety of its citizens in Thailand.
Thailand's tourism industry has also mobilised. According to the Bangkok Post, travel agencies and hotel associations have called on the government to establish a unified, transparent information system to curb the spread of inaccurate or outdated information. Notably, TAT had already launched a dedicated "Nihao Month" promotional campaign in mid-September, using discounts and joint marketing to build momentum in the Chinese market; after the floods hit, part of that campaign's resources were quickly redirected toward flood updates and image-repair efforts. Industry observers say the Chinese-language social media infrastructure and follower base TAT had already built are a key reason it could mount such an intensive public-relations campaign within just a few days.
