Dusit Thani – after the riots by Nadia Willan photo by Jørgen Udvang
T
hink of an image of the recent riots and protests in Bangkok’s business district and you might bring to mind the Dusit Thani Hotel. Inadvertently thrust into the centre of the action Thailand’s home grown business success story was featured as the backdrop for what became international and global, headline making news. Chanin Donavanik, CEO of the Dusit Thani hotel group talks about the affects of being in a no-go conflict zone. What is the background to the hotel group? It was started 63 years ago by my mother. We now have sixteen hotels in Thailand and hotels in the Middle East, the Philippines and we are opening in India in 2011, making twenty two hotels altogether, so far.
Have you been surprised by the reaction from guests after the troubles? A lot of the local and expat regulars came back in really soon after the protestors left, to have a drink and lend their support. I have so many letters and emails from people from all over the world saying positive things about the hotel. We’ve even had guests who stayed here twenty years ago coming back to stay after seeing that we were in the news. The reaction has been positive and very encouraging. Do you feel there has been enough support to help the hospitality industry get back on its feet? No if I’m being honest. I don’t. We’ve been encouraged to drop our prices in a promotional bid to bring customers back with some price drops going as low as 50%. This has been the worst crisis for over thirty years. Asking us to drop prices is like asking a bleeding man to give more blood. I haven’t seen enough action in encouraging people to come back to Thailand, to stay at the hotels. What about the 15,000 baht tax deduction to encourage people to spend more? I am not sure it helps the hotel here in Bangkok, or other Bangkok hotels who have been hit hard by the troubles. Maybe the incentive is good for hotels outside of Bangkok though but not sure it impacts in any way with those who have suffered the most. I don’t see this as directed help in any way. The Dusit Thani is a high-profile hotel, how badly affected have you been? The industry has had problems for a few years. In 2008 we had the closing of Bangkok airport, Last April there were problems with protests too. But I don’t think anyone imagined that the streets would be taken over for two months and that we would have to close for 8 days. Despite all of this, it is our 40th anniversary year and our reputation has strengthened even more
Picture of Dusit Thani taken from Lumpini Park. Photo by Kristine Hasle 40
Thai-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce