jewel

If Thailand is the jaded, sinking destination which this article says it is - then why have airlines flying to Thailand got full or nearly full flights in December, April and July?

End of June I tried to book a ticket to Europe with China Airlines, and their site claimed the plane was full each and every day between the 1st of July till the 31st of October.

I called them up and they confirmed that it was all fully booked, and so did several travel agencies, so they suggested that I put myself on waiting list.

I did so at a random date, and within 15 minutes I received an email notification from China that both departure date and return date were confirmed. I later changed those dates at least 3 times with immediate confirmation.

Oh, by the way the ticket price was with a 40% discount over the normal price, and they have extended their promotion now till 31 December.

ALL major airlines have similar promotions for the past 4 months.

Clearly, the airlines are not concerned too much - their prices are sky-high!

You should climb from under that rock and look at that other thread in the travel forum. It is titled " I've never seen the prices that LOW"

I paid 600 (over christmas, would consider that as peak season) with emirates, almost every day i receive e-mails with promotions from europe to bangkok (starting at 525), if i check july/august 2015 i get prices less than 700 ,....

Thats far from sky high. And many people, including myself, use bangkok as a hub due to the flight fares.

Then why are all my favorite hotels charging higher advertised rates this year than the same months last year?

Didn't you know that when business is bad, the Thais just put the prices up to compensate for the loss of income.

The 10% drop is most likely just attributed to border runs being curbed.

The real figures will come out one day. All you have to do is go outside for a few nights.

Hotels are struggling, the popular restaurants are empty, the bars are mostly dying, and the few tourists you do see

are the Chines / Korean tour groups, and the low end Russians (and not too many of them), so reality would

seem to be far different from what they are reporting.

Many of these so called arrivals must only be transiting through Thailand on their way to other countries.

I am not complaining, I kind of like it this way, but maybe the TAT should give more accurate figures to business

people, so that they can base future decisions on these statistics.

I am a "so called arrival". Arriving late i must have a overnigt in bangkok before i travel onward. Same on the way back. From 2 months in SEA only 2 night in bangkok airport area due to flight connections.

And many of my friends, clients do it the same way. Flights from europe are extremly cheap at the moment, for example vienna-bangkok-vienna with emirates from 525. Many people use bangkok as their hub but dont want to spend 1 day extra due to the changes in the last years.

Disgusting:-(

I think this is a good idea.

Not every country can afford the security and luxury of other places.

Tourist come to Koh Tao becuase its cheap.

If foreigners want more security they should pay for something rather then complain something is not good all the time.

Obviously you do not think that the host country, in this case Thailand has a resposibility to take care of the people that visit the country? Do thais pay for security when they travel to another country?

Maybe the good people of Koh Tao should not be so kei neow if they want tourists to visit their Island. After all there are other Islands and indeed other countries that would be more welcoming to tourists.

But I get you're piont, which is why should Thais care what happens to tourists in Thailand?

Yes exactly.

If I was in your country and I would the host country care about what happened to me?

No they just want me to spend my money.

So why should my thai people pay money for stupid tourists.

Dont worry, many "stupid" tourists allready changed for cambodia, vietnam, malaysia,...and i (working for a touroperator here) encourage them not to go to thailand anymore. Not because i think it is unsafe, simply because they are not welcome. And that began long ago.

Many people have enough to be treated like a walking atm and the neighbouring countries are much more welcoming.

Go on, great idea...it is 10.00am here and i had 3 clients that changed from vaccation in thailand to cambodia and vietnam allready

Time to set clear rules, really. I work for a (uk based) touroperater in vienna and since this visa chaos 60% of the clients from my office switch to neighbouring countries. But anyway, a lot of damage is done. In one sentence, from backpackers to 5* holiday makers: if the thais dont want my money, the cambodians, vietnamese, lao people....will appreciate it.

people tend to remember bad things for long.