A woman at a restaurant waits for customers in a night market in Bangkok. Facing a drastic decrease in the number of foreign tourists, Southeast Asia's tourism industry faces business shutdowns and even bankruptcies stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. © Reuters

China-reliant SE Asian tourism sector faces shutdown domino

Beijing's group tour ban takes toll as its coronavirus response reaches 50th day

KENTARO IWAMOTO, APORNRATH PHOONPHONGPHIPHAT and SHOTARO TANI, Nikkei staff writers

March 16, 2020 04:04 JST

SINGAPORE/BANGKOK/JAKARTA -- A resort hotel in southern Thailand's popular beach town of Hua Hin is to close all its operations permanently on Monday, becoming the latest corporate victim of the new coronavirus, which has dampened travel demand in Asia.

In a letter to its employees, the hotel, Banyan the Resort Hua Hin, said it could not carry on making cumulative losses at a time when the number of foreign tourists continues to fall sharply due to the coronavirus outbreak. Like many other hotels in the country, a large portion of its guests had been from China, where the virus originated.