As the demonstrations continue, many people are getting worried about the affect this will have on the Thailand Open 2010. From my own experience living and working in Bangkok, I have no problems with the demonstrators, as my home and office are not in the affected areas. Neither is the Hotel.
No matter what happens, we are committed to make this tournament every bit as good and better than previous years. Century Park Hotel is not close to the confrontation at the government offices and the business/shopping district.
A piece of good news is that many of the demonstrators will return home as is traditional in Thailand for the New Year (Songkran) holidays. The tournament is on, and we will not let the remaining demonstrators disrupt the Thailand Open.
We are looking forward to welcoming all of you to Bangkok. My advice is “Don’t worry, play well” !
Dear Peter – we are depending upon the organisers of the event to take a responsible approach in their advice relating to the current situation in Bangkok. We understand you want a successful tournament; we all want that. However, if there is a threat to the safety of participants we look for you to be honest and open in that regard. Best wishes
Hi James. You are absolutely right – if we thought there would be trouble at the airport or in the locality of the tournament, we would have to say so. The vast majority of the redshirts are peaceful and many have already left Bangkok, but there does seem to be a small core of troublemakers intent on forcing the government’s hand. If things continue to escalate, we will have to reassess our advice, but I believe we saw the worst of it last night (Saturday) and things will settle down over the next few days.
Hi Jim,
I’m an Australian living in Bangkok, and can endorse the organiser’s opinion that participants should be quite safe at the tournament. The protesters are massed at a limited number of sites, not particulary close to the venue. So long as visitors don’t go looking for trouble by deliberately wandering into the protest areas, or stay in those areas, they will be fine. If participants are staying at the venue, they will be absolutely fine. We residents are wandering about Bangkok as usual-we are just taking care to avoid a few trouble spots. I hope this comment from a “non-interested” party might be of some reassurance to you.