The car bomb attacks in Hat Yai have hurt tourism and local business, leading more than half of 12,500 room bookings for Songkran to be cancelled.
Debris litters the ground outside a McDonald’s at Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel after Saturday’s bombing in Hat Yai. Experts are pleading for a more active government role in securing the region and salvaging its reputation as casualties mount from the southern insurgency.
Somchart Pimthanapoonporn, who heads the Songkhla Tourism Business Council and the Hat Yai-Songkhla Hoteliers Association, said it would take three to six months for the situation to return to normal.
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