Protests in Thailand wreaking havoc for travellers

Anti-government protests in Thailand have had a huge impact on the travel industry with 860,000 British travellers having visited last year. Gold Medal Travel Group estimates that it has around 1000 customers travelling to Bangkok every week which has left them busy salvaging travel plans for hundreds of anxious travellers.

The blockade has resulted in all flights being cancelled and thousands of frustrated tourists have been left stranded in Bangkok until the airport, one of Asia's busiest, can reopen.

Gold Medal Travel and its associate companies have proactively spent the last two days contacting both passengers already in resort and those due to travel in the next 48 hours, in a bid to assist with travel plans and where appropriate make alternative arrangements.

Managing director Terry Fisher said: “The Far East is a major destination for Gold Medal Travel as well as being our largest flight only destination. We send around 1000 passengers every week to Bangkok. As a responsible tour operator we are doing everything we can to assist our customers who have already travelled or may be due to travel to Bangkok in the next few days.

“We constantly reiterate to our passengers the benefits of travelling with a fully bonded operator like Gold Medal and it is instances like this when passengers can rely on our excellent customer service team for support should they be out in resort or due to travel.

"We responded immediately and are assisting the airlines to ensure that affected passengers are repatriated or offered alternative options as soon as possible."

Fisher continued: "At times like this it is crucial that all elements of the travel industry pull together to help salvage what is possible. We're working very closely with our agent partners and are doing everything we can to assist our customers. We have drafted in extra staff to help deal with the high number of calls to our offices and we are being as flexible as possible to ensure our customers get away on holiday as they planned to.

“In these situations there is no such thing as over-communicating, and we are doing everything we can to keep everyone as up to date as possible.”