Impact of Hat Yai Floods on Tourism: Malaysian Tourists Expected to Cancel Travel to Thailand

Published on November 26, 2025

In southern Thailand, especially the flooding-affected district of Hat Yai, many tourists, especially from Malaysia, are expected to cancel trips. Travelers are most worried about the flooding that escalated over the weekend. Operators from Malaysia, one of Thailand’s biggest tourism markets, are most concerned.

Demand from the Malaysia tourism market has fallen, with people canceling trips and stopping inquiries. Bookings are on the decline, especially about the southern Thailand floods. TAT has noted that over the weekend, about 15 operators from Malaysia reached out to request and provide direction on the deteriorated southern Thailand floods and the closure of Hat Yai.

Southern Thailand’s tourism centers on the transit hub, Hat Yai, located in the Songkhla province of Thailand. The area is also the most popular tourism destination in the province. It is visited by a huge number of tourists, especially from Malaysia, because of its rich culture and variety of cheap goods and services. The flooding has severely impacted travel across all industries. Hotels and many businesses have had their properties vandalised.

Hat Yai is a popular tourist spot for shopping and entertainment for Malaysian tourists, but a natural disaster recently affected Hat Yai’s tourism business. Tourists visit the markets and malls in the Hat Yai city and see attractions like the Songkhla Lake and Khao Tangkuan Hill, but now that the roads are flooded and businesses are closed, travel is difficult and brings concerns about how local businesses dependent on tourism will fare.

Malaysian Tourists and the Flooding of Hat Yai

Malaysian tourists, the biggest market in the southern part of Thailand, have Flood in Hatyai affected tourists the most. Many tourists are now thinking about postponing or even canceling their trip, and tour operators are alerting travel Hatyai. The Flood affects individual tourists, and the entire Malaysian tour group argues not travel southern Thailand for now.

Cross-border visits weekly for shopping, dining, and entertainment make the Malaysian market extremely important for Thai tourism. For Malaysian day-trippers and short-term tourists looking for a quick getaway, Hat Yai has always been popular. The flooding will likely not only result in cancellations, but will also deter travel to the area until water recedes and conditions improve.

Integrating efforts with local tourism operators to track the evolving situation and relay information to overseas clientele has been the focus for TAT. As a result, travel advisories have been implemented, warning of incoming travelers to observe the weather patterns and modify travel plans accordingly. With TAT, the Thai government, and local officials, TAT has been active in determining the extent of tourism-related damage and streamlining the restoration process.

Sustaining Affected Tourism Operators

For business operators engaged with the tourism sector in the southern Thailand region – specifically, Hat Yai – these are difficult times. Given the rising number of cancellations, most these businesses are reporting substantial revenue losses and, in some cases, are closing their premises until the flood waters recede. Local actors in the tourism sector are looking for the Thai government and the TAT to help mitigate the crisis and its potential long-term impacts on tourism.

To mitigate the impacts of the flooding on the local businesses, the Thai government and the TAT are attempting to temporarily promote some form of domestic tourism in the Thailand flood-affected areas in the hope of bringing some financial return and revenue to local tourism operators who are suffering financially under the impacts of international tourism cancellations. The TAT is further attempting to promote tourism business operators to redirect their marketing strategies geographically to other less flood-affected areas of Thailand so that these other regions can receive some of the international tourism, particularly Malaysians that are less impacted.

The southern area of Thailand, particularly Hat Yai, is still expected to be well engaged with the tourism sector once the floods are over. There is some confidence that the southern sector of Thailand will return to their pre-flood tourism levels once the weather settles and the region’s infrastructure is fully intact and operational.

For the Region South Thailand – The Paradigms, and on the Horizon The South Thailand and Hat Yai case define the scope and the extent of the soft and hard vulnerabilities of the industry. Despite the market softness, stakeholders in the industry remain positive that the tourists who appreciate the culinary delights, culture and the nature of the region will fill the area again. For the overall industry for Thailand, the South Thailand Flooding invite the attention to the need to be flexible and prepare for the unprepared.

Considering the Region South Thailand to be the South Thailand Recovery Phase, the stakeholders of tourism in the area have and are defining the horizon in terms of the mid and long terms, defining the sustainable and of higher order the overall focus tourism where the industry will be able to withstand disruptions and have better inventory of disaster management practices.

Conclusions

The intense flooding in Hat Yai has had an impact on the region’s tourism industry, notably on the Malaysian tourists, a major visitor segment in southern Thailand. Cancellations will be in the short term, however, the focus of Thailand’s Tourism Authority and local officials has shifted to strengthening tourism confidence and recovering the region’s tourism offerings. Once the situation stabilizes, hope remains for southern Thailand to once again be a sought-out destination for travel on a global and regional scale.