Large- and medium-sized hotels in Phuket and other provinces in southern Thailand will financially survive for the rest of this year, a leading hotelier said on Sunday.

Kongsak Khuphongsakorn, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA) Southern Chapter, said most Large- and medium-sized hotels in Phuket and elsewhere in the southern region of the country will manage to get through financially and only small-sized ones might possibly go out of business due to the pandemic, which has kept foreign visitors at bay.

Kongsak confirmed most hotels, including those in beachfront and seaside areas of the tourist island, have reopened for Thai visitors in place of foreign guests between June and September, normally viewed as low season.

Those hotels will very likely manage to keep the business going and offer lowered room rates for Thai guests, he said.

Foreign guests, especially the Chinese, are not expected until October or later whereas international passenger airliners are currently not allowed to land at Thai airports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kongsak assured many hotels in Phuket will take financial aid from the government which has planned to provide soft loans for the country's pandemic-affected hospitality sector as part of its social and economic relief and restoration measures.

The THA southern chapter president said many hotels and guesthouses in downtown areas, considerably far from the beaches, might be operating at enormous loss or be finally closed.

He said the owners of those small-sized hotels and guesthouses might probably look to sell them off rather than continue to run them on their own.

Dozens of small-sized hotels on Koh Samui island off Surat Thani province might probably go out of business later this year due to lack of liquidities and incomes, according to THA southern chapter president Kongsak.