A porter in front of Dusit Thani, one of the grand hotels of Bangkok, as it prepared to close temporarily on Monday amid clashes between antigovernment protesters and the Thai military.
By SETH MYDANS
BANGKOK — Some of the city’s grandest hotels are shut and ringed with coils of glittering razor wire. Foreign visitors have deserted its temples and backpacker haunts. Military roadblocks hem in some of its famous nightspots.
Arrivals at Bangkok’s international airport are down by at least one-third, and hotel occupancy rates hover around 20 percent to 30 percent.
Thailand’s tourism industry, built on an image of gentleness, pleasure and smiles, is suffering its worst setback in decades — perhaps the worst in its history, according to tourism officials.
As scenes of the country’s violent uprising have spread around the world — bombs and bodies, street fights and gunfire — people abroad are asking whether it is safe to visit Bangkok.
The brief answer, from embassies and security experts and even some people in the tourism industry, is: probably not right now.
At least 37 people have died in five days of fighting between the military and antigovernment demonstrators, known as the red shirts. Although the two sides may now be edging toward negotiations, the potential for more violence remains.
Forty-seven nations have told their citizens to be cautious about travel to Thailand, and several, including the United States, have warned them to stay away.
The violence has been confined so far to a relatively small, though central, area of Bangkok. But the city is tense. Roadblocks, checkpoints and shutdowns of public transportation have made travel difficult. Taxi drivers refuse to take passengers to some parts of the city.
On Saturday, the United States Embassy issued an advisory that said, “All United States citizens should defer all travel to Bangkok and defer all nonessential travel to the rest of Thailand.” It said all nonemergency government workers and their families were authorized to leave.
On Tuesday, the Tourism Authority of Thailand issued its own advisory, saying, “Visitors and tourists are advised to be vigilant, follow news developments, exercise extra caution and avoid areas covered by the declaration of a severe emergency situation” — areas that include not only the capital, Bangkok, but also 21 provinces.
In fact much of Bangkok is peaceful, as are virtually all parts of the provinces covered in the advisory, and many Thais are disturbed to see their country portrayed as a place of violence.“When you get out from those areas of political turmoil, things seem to move as smoothly as ever,” said Korakot Punlopruksa, a travel writer and photographer. “We still live peacefully, we still love good food, and the sea is still beautiful.”
Thais try to break away from thoughts of the conflict, she said.
“Otherwise, we would go crazy.”
On Khaosan Road, a low-budget haven that is far from the fighting, the calm weighed like a heavy cloud over half-empty bars and souvenir shops and hostels. Rows of three-wheeled tuk-tuk taxis stood idle in front of empty Internet cafes and foot-massage parlors.
“It’s annoying,” said Muk Singh, 50, the proprietor of a tailor shop called Novo Fashion, speaking of the political violence. “It’s affecting us. We have expenses to meet and rent to pay.”
Most visitors seemed to shrug off the city’s tensions.
“We went to the train station today to buy tickets, and we saw soldiers with guns and police on barricades and SWAT teams,” said Jake Frieda, 19, from Britain, who is traveling before he attends college. “But I think they’re not bothering tourists. They’re leaving tourists alone.”
On Soi Cowboy, a street filled with bars where women dance in skimpy outfits, Bobby Edwards, 50, a retiree from Britain, said he had come here rather than to the more famous Patpong Road because of the protests.
“Patpong is the sex entertainment center of Bangkok,” he said. “The red shirts have basically closed it down because it’s located near of the center of their protests.”
Rebecca Hinckley, 33, a legal secretary from Ireland, said she had been terrified Saturday night when she had found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Two bombs went off, and we started running,” she said. “We could hear the crowds coming towards us, we could hear gunfire, we just started running like crazy. Everybody was very, very great to us. They were shouting, ‘Run, run, run!’ They were running with us.”
But still, she added: “I love Thailand. I still feel safe here. Unfortunately we were stupid enough to be out walking last night. It seems like everywhere else is quite normal.”
Tourism, one of Thailand’s most sophisticated and successful industries, accounts for 6 percent or 7 percent of the country’s economy. Twenty percent of employment in Thailand is directly or indirectly linked to tourism, according to the Thailand National Statistical Office.
Two weeks ago, before the worst of the violence erupted, Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa estimated that the number of tourists would slide by 10 percent, to 12.7 million this year, from 14.1 million last year. Earlier, officials had projected a rise to 15.5 million.
Charoen Wanganonanond, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, told The Bangkok Post: “It’s hard to say what will happen. What is certain is that the recovery process will be long and costly. This is the worst crisis ever faced in the history of the Thai tourism industry.”
Bangkok is already planning its clean-up operation once the protesters move out of the high-end shopping area they have occupied. The city administration said it would clean roads and sewers and water mains, remove garbage and bring in 1,000 monks to chant and accept alms.
Surveillance cameras, disabled by the protesters, will be repaired.
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