By Jessica Lim, Jalelah Abu Baker, Rachel Au-Yong

SINGAPORE tourists, put off by the chaos in Thailand, are cancelling their trips to the country.

Checks with 15 travel agencies here show that half of them have had cancellations or postponements, especially for Bangkok and Pattaya, the scenes of recent demonstrations.

At ASA Holidays, all 10 Singaporeans headed to Thailand in the next two weeks have backed out. Sino-America (SA) Tours had five cancellations, more than half of those for travel this week.

It is the same story at smaller outfits like Goldhill Plaza's Timesworld with four cancellations so far, and Peninsula Plaza's Ramesh Travel Service with five.

Said SA Tours spokesman Ruth Lim: "We have advised customers to postpone their trip to Thailand if possible."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel alert to Singaporeans to postpone their travel plans to a later date.

Those still travelling should register at www.mfa.gov.sg to leave a contact, the ministry urged. So far, it has
"received a significant increase in the number of registrations from Singaporeans travelling to Thailand" and "will continue to monitor the situation closely?, said a spokesman.

The South-east Asian country is the third most popular travel destination among Singaporeans - behind Malaysia and China - with about 700,000 making trips to the country yearly.

Airlines that fly to Thailand, namely Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways, Jetstar Asia and Tiger Airways, said that flights would go on as scheduled, but they would waive cancellation and re-routing charges for customers travelling to some destinations during this time.

The National Association of Travel Agents Singapore will also notify its 320 members today to let customers cancel with no penalties.

The Thai Embassy here said it was preparing a travel advisory for agencies.

"Tourism will definitely be affected," said the Thai Ambassador to Singapore, Mr Nopadol Gunavibool. "The most important thing is to handle the situation well now."

His advice: avoid central Bangkok, the vicinity of Government House and Royal Plaza, and where demonstrations are taking place.

Apart from the city centre, most of Bangkok remains unaffected, he said.

Tourists should also be mindful of the sensitivity of wearing certain colours like yellow, red and blue, "to be on the safe side".

"Things should be back to normal in a few days since the military has stepped in," he added.

Still, holidaymaker Angela Chan is not taking the risk.

The administrative assistant has cancelled her departure on Friday for a four-day Bangkok shopping spree.

"I read the papers daily and things there seemed to be getting worse," she said.

"The situation is so uncertain, anything can happen, and I thought it would be too dangerous."

Another traveller, Mrs Johnny Wee, 54, who returned from a short Bangkok trip with her son and husband yesterday, recounted how they were having a massage when the mall was evacuated.

"There were fire tankers and a raid going on outside," she said.

limjess@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times.