The collapse of the third-largest tour operator in Europe has started to affect thousands of tourists and hundreds of hotels in Thailand, leading to losses of 111 million baht.
Germany-based FTI Group filed for insolvency earlier this month, affecting a number of holidaymakers in Thailand this week as they are due to check out.
Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), said that the impact from this collapse amounted to at least 111 million baht, mostly affecting hotels in the South.
He said the losses might be greater as hotels are continuing to submit more information to the association, as FTI was considered one of the biggest feeders for all hotels across Thailand that target European markets.
He said the recent financial problems with large tour operators would impact the market both in the short and long term, as hoteliers might be reluctant to provide credits to tour operators, or may reduce their credits.
Some hotels may even move to online bookings and scrap the credit system to ensure payment and avoid such risks, said Mr Thienprasit.
Thanet Supornsahasrungsi, of the Association of the Chonburi Tourism Federation, said hotels need to ask their guests who booked rooms via FTI to pay on their own upon checking out, or ask for advance payments upon checking in, as operators might not be able to collect those payments from FTI anymore.
He said there were reports from other hotels that tourists said they were not responsible for their expenses as they already paid the tour company.
In such cases, hoteliers have to bear those costs alone, similar to the collapse of the travel firm Thomas Cook in 2019.
