Thailand is facing severe air pollution, with 36 out of 77 provinces under health warnings from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency. Thirteen of the provinces have been issued with a red-level alert, reports bangkokpost.com.
Bangkok issues health advisories
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration spokesperson, Aekvarunyoo Amrapala, encouraged vulnerable people such as pregnant women, the elderly, children, and individuals with pre-existing health conditions to remain indoors, and advised everyone to wear masks when they were outside. Additionally, travellers can monitor air quality using the AirBKK app or the website, airbkk.com.
Travel and tourism disrupted
According to straittimes.com, several flights had to be diverted from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport to Suvarnabhumi Airport due to poor visibility caused by the smog. Air Asia and Lion Air flights were forced to circle the airport to wait for the visibility to improve before landing.
Thanet Supornsahasrungsi, President of the Association of Chonburi Tourism Federation, the province that is home to popular tourist destination Pattaya, revealed that the recent smog issues had deterred travellers from visiting the city, reports pattayamail.com.
He urged the Thai government to address the air pollution crisis to ease concerns about the city becoming a health risk, as he said it remained one of the key obstacles to Pattaya’s reaching its full tourism potential.
