中国游客旅游东南亚 应该避开泰国曼谷动荡

The love affair between Chinese tourists and Thailand hit its first big reality check last month, according to Vichit Prakobgosol, one of the matchmakers who helped the relationship blossom.

泰国华裔旅游业者黄汉忠(Vichit Prakobgosol)表示，中国游客与泰国之间的“热恋”上月遭遇首次大考。黄是帮助这段关系得到蓬勃发展的“媒人”之一。

The Thai-Chinese tour operator’s CCT Group saw the number of Chinese visitors plunge after street protests convulsed Bangkok – with the prospect of more trouble to come as opposition activists started blocking roads late yesterday to shut down the city from today. “January is normally high season because of Chinese New Year but, if the situation worsens, volumes may be down more than 50 per cent,” said Mr Vichit, who founded CCT a quarter of a century ago.

在曼谷爆发街头抗议活动之后，泰国国泰旅游集团(CCT Group)眼看着中国游客数量大幅减少，而随着反对派12日夜间开始封锁道路，从13日起封城，形势可能会变得更加严峻。黄汉忠表示：“由于中国农历新年，1月通常是泰国的旅游旺季，但如果形势恶化，游客数量可能会减少一半以上。”泰国国泰旅游集团是黄汉忠25年前创建的。

His company welcomed 7,000 Chinese arrivals to the Thai capital in December, compared with an expected minimum of 15,000.

去年12月，他的公司接待了7000名赴曼谷旅游的中国游客，而此前预计该月游客数量最少为1.5万。

“Chinese tourists are especially frightened by the so-called shutdown of Bangkok, as they understand it to mean they cannot enter or exit the city,” he added.

他补充称：“所谓的封锁曼谷尤其吓到了中国游客，因为他们认为，这意味着他们无法进出曼谷。”

Mr Vichit’s worries are shared by others in Thailand’s jittery tourist industry, who fear the deepening political crisis could bring an abrupt halt to a boom seen before big demonstrations began in November.

整个泰国旅游业弥漫着紧张不安的气氛，其他从业人士也怀着与黄汉忠一样的担忧。人们担心，政治危机恶化可能会令大规模示威活动出现之前的旅游热潮戛然而止，这些示威活动始于去年11月。

As protesters battle to derail elections due on February 2, businesses are hoping a mix of a weakening national economy and political instability won’t destroy “Teflon” Thailand’s reputation for shrugging off financial and reputational troubles rather than seeing them stick.

在抗议者试图破坏定于2月2日举行的泰国大选之际，企业界希望，疲弱的国民经济和政治不稳定局面不会破坏泰国因为不受金融和信誉危机影响而赢得的“特富龙”声誉，不会出现粘锅现象。

“The situation for Thai travel isn’t good at all in our agency this year,” said a manager of one international travel agency in south China, lamenting a sometimes violent crisis in which seven people were wounded when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on anti-government protesters in Bangkok early on Saturday. “In the past, we usually promoted Bangkok for the Chinese New Year – but this year, we replaced it with islands in southeast Asian countries.”

“今年我们旅行社的泰国游形势很不好，”中国华南一国际旅行社的经理表示，“过去，我们通常会推广春节泰国游，但今年我们换成了东南亚海岛游。”他伤感地提到了这场时而带有暴力色彩的危机，上周六凌晨，一伙骑着摩托车的持枪者向一群反政府抗议者开枪，造成7人受伤。

The nerves in the run-up to Chinese New Year on January 31 reflect China’s importance to a Thai tourist industry that accounts for up to 10 per cent of Thai gross domestic product.

1月31日中国农历新年之前的这种紧张情绪，反映出中国市场对泰国旅游业的重要性，而旅游业在泰国国内生产总值(GDP)中所占的比重多达10%。

Much of the official 20 per cent growth in the sector to October last year has come from newly wealthy middle-class Chinese, attracted by publicity such as the wildly popular 2012 Chinese comedy movie Lost in Thailand.

官方统计数字显示，去年1-10月泰国旅游业产值增长20%，这在很大程度上得益于中国新兴富有中产阶级，2012年极受欢迎的中国喜剧电影《人再囧途之泰囧》(Lost in Thailand)等宣传材料吸引了他们。

Some of those gains have already been reversed, thanks also to new rules in China that have pushed up the costs of foreign tourism by banning operators from charging commissions from shops they take their groups to visit.

由于中国颁布的新规，这股增长势头在一定程度上已被逆转。新规禁止旅行社从它们带团去购物的商店收取佣金，这推升了出境游价格。

The number of Chinese arrivals at Bangkok’s main Suvarnabhumi airport plummeted from almost 170,000 in December 2012 to fewer than 134,000 last month, say official data.

官方数据显示，2013年12月抵达曼谷主要机场——素万那普(Suvarnabhumi)机场的中国游客数量从2012年12月的近17万人降至不到13.4万人。

Even though some hotels in Bangkok are reporting falls in occupancy of 15 per cent or more, many other tourists are still coming through the capital to Thailand’s island resorts as normal: arrivals of both US and British nationals at Suvarnabhumi rose slightly year on year in December.

尽管曼谷一些酒店报告入住率下滑15%或更多，但很多其他国家的游客仍像往常一样通过曼谷去往泰国的海岛旅游胜地：去年12月，抵达曼谷素万那普机场的美国和英国游客数量同比均略有增加。

Bangkok’s streets hardly feel empty either, with foreigners swarming around popular tourist areas such as the upmarket Ratchaprasong mall district and the choked pavements of the Silom Road night market.

曼谷街头也没有给人空荡荡的感觉，大量外国游客出现在颇受欢迎的游客集散地，例如曼谷的拉查帕森(Ratchaprasong)高档购物区，而Silom Road夜市的人行道上仍是熙熙攘攘。

And the protests are an extra attraction for some visitors, such as the Spanish tourist who pitched up on his bike this week to an opposition camp outside the prime minister’s offices and quizzed demonstrators on whether their movement resembled Mohandas Gandhi’s non-violent campaign for Indian independence.

抗议活动还特别吸引了一些游客，例如一名西班牙游客日前就骑上自行车来到泰国总理办公室外的反对派营地，询问示威者他们的运动是否与莫罕达斯•甘地(Mohandas Gandhi)为争取印度独立所开展的非暴力运动类似。

But, while the slick PR videos for a country where “happiness has a thousand faces” have never exactly reflected some of its grittier truths, Chinese media and others are pointing increasingly to the gap between Thailand’s image and actual events.

然而，尽管关于这个“千面王国”的华丽公关视频从未如实反映其现实中较为严峻的一面，但中国媒体和其他方面越来越多地指出泰国形象与实际国情之间的差距。

As a reporter for China’s state-run Global Times put it in an article last month: “My recent visit to Thailand left me with the impression that this southeast Asian country’s gentle smile can become a scowl in the face of political unrest.”

正如中国官方报纸《环球时报》的一名记者上月在一篇文章中所言，最近去泰国给他留下了这样一种印象：这个东南亚国家的微笑在面对政治动荡时可能变成一副怒容。

Now Mr Vichit just wants to see Thai tourism and other businesses repeat their success in shrugging off the effects of previous protracted protests in the capital in 2008 and 2010.

如今，黄汉忠只希望泰国旅游业和其它行业可以再次像2008年和2010年曼谷爆发长期抗议时那样，摆脱政治动荡的影响。

“If the political tension is resolved quickly it will only take one month for the Chinese to flood back into Bangkok,” he said.

他表示：“如果政治紧张局势迅速化解，只需一个月中国游客就会再次涌入曼谷。”