BANGKOK – Thailand will take steps to enhance the safety of foreign tourists, officials said on Wednesday, a day after a fatal shooting at a mall in Bangkok.

Tourism Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol stressed that the shooting at the Siam Paragon mall in the city was “an isolated incident”.

However, law enforcement agencies will tighten weapons screening at shopping malls and other tourist spots, she said. 

On Tuesday, a teenager shot dead two people inside Siam Paragon, a popular shopping centre in the capital city.

The victims were a 34-year-old Chinese national and a Myanmar citizen working at the mall.

Five people were also injured, including another Chinese citizen. 

The shooter was arrested by the police.

He had previously been treated for mental illness and had skipped taking medication, according to police chief Torsak Sukvimol.

The shooting casts a shadow on Thailand’s expectations for a surge in foreign tourist arrivals under a visa-free programme for visitors from China and Kazakhstan.

The South-east Asian nation, popular for its beaches, Buddhist temples and national parks, is forecast to receive up to 30 million holidaymakers in 2023, more than double the tally in 2022.

Thailand is counting on tourists to power an economic recovery in 2023 as it grapples with headwinds from a decline in exports and higher interest rates.

Chinese tourists were the largest group of visitors to the country before the Covid-19 pandemic, accounting for about 28 per cent of the record 40 million foreign arrivals in 2019. 

Eye on the fallout

The fallout from the shooting on tourism needs to be watched, said Bank of Thailand governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput on Wednesday.

He added that the industry had recovered to 60 per cent to 70 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels.

Mr Burin Adulwattana, chief economist at the Bangkok-based Kasikorn Research Centre, said: “The shooting will hurt (the) confidence of tourists and sentiment.”

It also “increases downside risk to Thailand’s fragile economic recovery”, he added.

“The government will need to try its best to restore confidence.”

Shares of hotels, shopping mall operators and airlines fell in Bangkok trading, dragging the SET Tourism & Leisure Index to a one-year low.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand and other agencies will step up their communications strategy to ease concerns among travellers and improve Thailand’s image as a safe destination, officials said at a briefing on Wednesday.

Mass shootings are not very common in Thailand.

But in 2022, a former police officer fired an automatic weapon in a daycare centre in north-eastern Thailand, killing 36 people, mostly pre-schoolers.

Since then, the government has ordered a crackdown on unlicensed gun owners and compulsory registration of all firearms. BLOOMBERG