'This will cause severe damage to our tourism industry. Foreign tourists will lose confidence. Not only that, the travel insurance costs to Thailand will surge. This will discourage them from travelling to Thailand because costs for other countries will be cheaper. It will also affect our trade and investment going forward," he said.

'It will be even more difficult for our economic growth to reach 4 per cent next year and the following years. The global recession will definitely hurt us and we still have the political turmoil on top of that.

'The impact on this will deal a blow to us and may outweigh any spending and stimulus plans the government will do to boost the economy.'

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