Thailand turmoil shuts down scores of businesses
BANGKOK — Yoga studios have canceled classes. Luxury hotels are turning away guests. Shopping malls and office buildings are shut down.
As Thailand's political turmoil enters its seventh week, the economic toll is spreading. Ordinary workers, parents and shoppers often reach their destinations to find signs that say: "Sorry, closed due to political unrest."
The "Red Shirt" protesters have occupied various parts of Bangkok since March 12 to demand the government's resignation. Twenty-six people have died in the political violence.
The protests are concentrated now in about a square mile of the Thai capital. In early April, protesters pitched tents along the city's swankiest shopping street — the equivalent of Paris' Champs-Elysees or New York's Fifth Avenue.
Thousands of supporters have slept on sidewalks ever since. Four luxury hotels and a half-dozen towering shopping malls in the area have closed, losing millions of dollars a day.
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