One of the side effects of the coronavirus is the drop in tourists: in Thailand they fell by 44.3 per cent compared to the previous year. The monkeys, too, are paying the price — accustomed to being fed by visitors, they now roam the streets hungry.
It looks like an episode of Night on Earth, the Netflix Netflix series that reveals the secrets of our planet after dark. Sadly, however, it is not. On the contrary, it is simply one of the side effects of the spread of the new coronavirus that, quite understandably, people rarely think about. And yet, it has happened and will continue to happen until normality is restored. Covid-19, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a pandemic, has left hotels in Thailand empty, its tour guides out of work and its markets quieter than ever. So, who feeds the monkeys?
A video posted by Sasaluk Rattanachai, a resident of Lopburi, shows monkeys fighting over food in his city, around 150 kilometres north-east of the capital Bangkok. "It's summer, usually at this time of year there are lots of tourists," Rattanachai explains, "but now, because of the coronavirus outbreak, there are so few that even the markets are quiet. There aren't enough people to feed the monkeys at the Prang Sam Yod temple."
The long-tailed macaques that populate Thailand's cities, sometimes in groups of five hundred, are notorious for stealing food from residents and unsuspecting tourists, so much so that fights between monkeys are not entirely unusual. They grab anything they can: "Colourful objects, hats, sunglasses," says Manad Vimuktipune of the Lopburi monkey foundation. And the scarcity of tourists is leaving them hungry — to the point that a brawl like the one that broke out in Lopburi bears no comparison to those that occur under normal conditions.
The outbreak of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is a severe blow to global tourism. All the more so for countries like Thailand, which is already facing economic hardship and relies heavily on tourism — foreign spending in 2019 amounted to 1,930 billion baht (approximately 56 billion euros), equivalent to 11 per cent of the country's GDP.
As reported by the Bangkok Post, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has stated that in February alone tourist arrivals fell by 44.3 per cent compared to the previous year. The sharpest decline was among visitors from China, who fell by 85.3 per cent. In the worst-case scenario, the number of foreign tourists is expected to drop from 39.8 million last year to 30 million this year, with a 22 per cent reduction in spending, "if the situation regarding the virus were to bottom out in May."
The government has faced heavy criticism over a lack of clarity in its handling of potential visitors, including the quarantine measures that could be imposed on those arriving from the worst-affected areas. This week it was announced that passengers who, in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Thailand, have travelled through or transited via several countries — including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Iran and Italy — may be subject to isolation. Travellers from these destinations must also provide a health certificate, issued within 48 hours of their departure, certifying that they are not infected with Covid-19.