newnative

I found the article to be just chock full of extremely useful insights, such as this one from the CEO: 'Ultimately, he emphasised the significance of increasing the number of visitors, as a higher influx of tourists directly correlates with a more positive impact on the country’s revenue.' Wow, just wow. More visitors will increase the country's revenue. That's deep. Who would have thought it? Let me get that gem tattooed on my arm so I won't forget it. Meanwhile, Thailand managed to attract 39 million visitors in 2019, who thought Thailand had plenty of attractions to entice them to visit. As Kinyara has pointed out, in April we were around 73% of 2019 numbers, with some nationalities even at higher numbers than 2019 at this point in the year. The only nationality not yet recovering at this point is Chinese visitors. Likely that will change at some point. I feel Thailand has attractions galore. If it could attract a Disney World that certainly wouldn't hurt but Thailand's tourist numbers were growing every year, pre-covid, without it. What I feel is needed more than new attractions is more emphasis on infrastructure maintenance and improvement, coupled with a truly serious--for once--all-out, no expense barred, full-throttle effort to reduce pollution. The world-wide, extremely negative stories regarding Chiang Mai's pollution being the worst in the world had a much more negative impact on tourism than the number of attractions on offer.

Walk it off.

140MB. That's a lot of 'love'. And, now, off to your inactive post--if there are any left.

Yes, total mess. The other day we were driving on it and noticed one of the workers using his foot to smooth the soil before doing lord knows what. Talk about primitive tools. As always, very few workers on site. If they were going to do turning lanes they should have eliminated parking in the turning lane sections to allow space for an actual turning lane and 2 thru lanes. Our least favorite road and getting worse, not better. And, the less said about the sidewalks, the better.

Drip, drip, drip.

Attempted rape, bad, but I am equally disturbed that the shop apparently videotapes customers getting massages. The CCTV footage was deleted, says the article. But, no mention, or condemnation, as to why there was CCTV footage in the first place invading the customer's privacy.

That is unfortunate.

Not broke, thank goodness. We've just mostly spent our money on stuff that's impossible to steal in a 10-minute break-in.

I'm wondering what a burglar would even find to steal if he hit my and my partner's place. We own no gold coins, gold bars, fine (or un-fine) jewelry. A couple of odds and ends rings we used to wear that I'd be hard-pressed to locate in a pile of storage boxes. No bitcoins. No loose diamonds or emeralds. No safe filled with cash--although we do have a small safe that we bought sometime ago that we haven't gotten around to getting out of the box. No expensive watches--we wear those inexpensive sport watches that tell us how many, or in my case few, steps we take a day. Our tvs are huge--one is 75 inches--so, hopefully, too big to easily cart off. No Van Goghs on the walls, more's the pity. No Giacometti or Remington table sculptures. I guess that leaves our laptops and cell phones. . .

Start with Beach Road. Eliminate the parking completely and expand the sidewalks on both sides with shade trees, not the cheap palms that are always used to replace shade trees that are removed. The added parking being done on the beach side is horrible--just to park a few more cars.

First pay the damages you owe IN FULL, THEN maybe get a reduced sentence.

It's all taking far too long.

I did it a Bangkok Bank, Central Festival.

Wow, looks like he is really porking up. Talk about a fat face. Guess he's getting ready for those, hopefully, upcoming lean years away from the trough.

Let me help. The one thing they can all agree on is Trump is the biggest liar, cheater, con man, and grifter the World has ever seen--or will ever see again.

Well, this would never have happened if she had been driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini like most sensible people. Then she could have parked in the Supercar reserved parking area with a security attendant standing watch. What in the World was she thinking???

Rearrange those deck chairs! And, once again, what is a lieutenant general doing as a lowly police spokesman??? That is a job for a lieutenant!

I'm neither shaken nor stirred. Fortunately, he did not harm any innocent bystanders by his reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous behavior.

I just did mine at Jomtien and it was no different than previous years and required the same docs. as what you stated, OP. Someone a few weeks back mentioned something on this forum about being fingerprinted but I wasn't--perhaps my prints were already on file due to traveling in and out of the country several times in the past few years. One thing new--they took a photo of me.

Investigated for their gross incompetence and then fired or locked up. First, they investigated Pita twice and certified him ok to run for office in 2019 and 2023. Now, when he wins, suddenly he is not fit for office? Ridiculous and shameful. Next, they let the equally ridiculous stock shares accusation percolate for weeks before announcing the accusation was filed too late--that could and should have been done the day it was filed and it should not have even been accepted. I suspect they were holding off until they came up with a way to use it themselves. Filing late could have been excused away--they really have no shame about anything so that wouldn't have stopped them. Disgusting--keep their feet to the fire.

Looking forward to the perp walk.

Read the headline and said 'Yaa!'. Read the story and said 'Boo!'.

And now on to Georgia.

Just in BKK part-time so maybe the results are more visible to full-time residents. One year is a short period. I do think he is doing the best he can and I admire him.

My partner and I have visited many countries. Not once did we consult any TAT-like agencies these countries might have had. No TAT-like agency convinced us to visit. We visited these countries because we wanted to see them--and would have visited regardless of the country's tour department. I suspect we are not in the minority on this. Thailand may indeed be a 'world tourism leader'--but not because of TAT. No, it's Thailand's many varied natural and man-made tourist attractions that bring tourists in the millions. Yes, Bangkok and the islands, as you say, are popular. But, without the private industry that developed both--and all the other tourist places--there would not be the vast tourist infrastructure in place for TAT to trumpet. I'm reminded of a visit to Koh Chang a couple years ago. We stayed at a gorgeous resort that had been constructed on a very difficult cliff site. Difficult, yes, but the result was spectacular. A private company built it, not TAT, with no guarantee of economic success. Just one example--there all around. We saw many examples of the same thing with other visits to Phuket, Samui, and, a few weeks ago, Koh Lipe. Private industry, not TAT, has been, and still is, risking and spending lots of money to make desirable places and attractions for tourists to visit. I, for one, would like to see a detailed breakdown of where that 5 billion baht is being spent.