newnative

Maybe re-read my posts. What I said applies to tourists from any country. Chinese tourists and businesses were just used as an example, since China is currently the largest group and the subject of the thread.

As always, telling a lie that nobody believes. Did the same thing when he was named worst president in history. And, my, he is really looking like a big tub of lard in those photos with the Queen. Must be at least 300 pounds. The poor Queen must have been praying he didn't stumble--she could have been crushed to death.

Dinosaurs at play.

Jobs for all the local Thais servicing all of those tourists. From bus drivers to hotel room cleaners to laundry workers to hotel gardeners to hotel pool cleaners to airport workers to maintenance workers to shop owners and sales staff to hotel guest staff to amusement and tour site staff to restaurant cooks and servers to taxi drivers to food and hotel suppliers to--the list goes on and on. It's pumping money from abroad into the local Thai economy, to the benefit of many local Thai workers, and not all of them directly in the tourist industry. The Thai tour bus driver earns a salary for driving around bus loads of tourists. He has money in his pocket and gets a haircut from a Thai barber, buys a motorcycle and gets it serviced from a Thai motorcycle shop, rents a room from a Thai landlord, shops for food at a local Thai market with local Thais selling their merchandise, washes his clothes at a local Thai-owned laundrymat. Etc., etc. Multiply the Thai bus driver by thousands of Thai tourist industry workers, and, in turn, all those Thais I mentioned above, and many more, now also have money in their pockets and they, too, can go out and purchase the same sort of local goods and services as the Thai bus driver. We saw with covid what happened when that tourist money flow from abroad got turned off. Not pretty. It matters not a bit if the bus company or the hotel or the restaurant is Chinese-owned or Martian-owned. If local workers are being employed, the local economy will benefit and, in turn, the nation will benefit.

As I said in my post, Thailand has a huge tourist industry which is not made up solely of 5-star resorts. It needs tourists of all economic strata to fill it's widely diverse tourist accommodations. Thailand, and all those owners of hotel rooms, needs a steady influx of large numbers of tourists to fill all those rooms every day. If budget tourists were costing the state money, Thailand would not be trying to lure more tourists to visit. Instead, they would put a very high fee on obtaining a tourist visa to keep out budget tourists. But, they would soon be hearing from all the owners of hostels, guesthouses, and no or low-star hotels who would soon be suffering from a lack of visitors to the price range they cater to. Not to mention all the lower-end restaurants, food courts, shops, attractions, etc. France, around the same size as Thailand, had over 90 million visitors in 2019. Thailand had around 40 million that year. So, France had to handle over double the number of visitors as Thailand did. Were all 90 million visitors 5-star tourists? Of course not. They were from all economic strata, including budget tourists, the same as Thailand--but 50 million more. Like Thailand, France does not have all 5-star hotels, either. Like Thailand, France needs large numbers of diverse budget visitors to fill large numbers of diverse budget hotel rooms. The idea that if a country attracts low-budget tourists then higher budget tourists will stay away is ludicrous. (Ring, ring. "Hello, France. Just calling to ask if any of your 90 million visitors are low-budget. Oh, sorry, can't visit if that is the case.") Once again, France, 90 million visitors, many low-budget. All those low-budget tourists are certainly not keeping all the others from coming to France--including my spouse and me the year we visited. Never entered our minds. We wanted to see France, and we did. Same-same with Thailand and its visitors.

Not only is Thailand not 'attracting more than 90% low budget tourists now', it is not even attracting 'more than 90%' of Chinese low budget tourists. At least 60% of Chinese travelers to Thailand are independent travelers, not with tour groups, be they budget tours or any other kind. This was true pre-covid and the 60% figure is being maintained in the recovery period. Classified as F.I.T, Free Independent Travelers, these tourists go where they want in Thailand, buy what they want, visit attractions they want to see, and eat and sleep in establishments that they choose, not a tour agency. There are always going to be tourists of all budgets visiting Thailand. But, that's a good thing. Thailand is not Monaco. Thailand is a large country with a massive tourist industry. This industry has a huge number of rooms that need to be filled with tourists every day--from budget hostels to Mom and Pop guesthouses to large 5-star resorts. One size does not fit all. It's all fine and dandy to say Thailand should only be trying to attract 5-star tourists--but that ignores all the tourist establishments that aren't 5-star. They all contribute, including the budget tours.

It's perfectly ok to use Ms. for both married and unmarried women.

Me, too!!!

Harris is super smart to just do the one agreed to debate. She likely knows full well that Trump doesn't actually debate--look at that clown show with Biden when he just regurgitated parts of his stump speech rather than answer the debate questions. Total farce. I'm sure Harris thinks one of his clown shows is quite enough to have to suffer through. She's right.

Certainly the changing tourist demographic has had an effect on what is opening and closing--and not just with bars and go-gos. While some posters persist in thinking that there has been a steep, steep drop in the number of western visitors to Thailand, that is not actually the case. Numbers have stayed fairly steady, and in some cases grown modestly. What has grown steeply is the number of Asian, Indian, and Russian tourists, along with Thai domestic travelers, with many visitors to Pattaya coming as families. This is the new demographic that has made Pattaya one of the top 20 visited places in the world. This is the demographic that got Terminal 21 built. This is the demographic that also got all the new hotels in the north end built--from Mitt to Ozo to Dusit Famiy Wing to Brighton to Ankara to D'Beach 3 to Centre Point 1 to Centre Point Space and the massive Centre Point 3 Resort now being built, and others, both large and smaller. This is the demographic responsible for much of the new retail--from new shopping choices to new restaurants to new, fun spots like the wonderful Nitan coffee shop to amusements like Aquaverse and Ramayana waterpark. This is the demographic driving much of the growth of Pattaya, which brings benefits for those of us living here, including a wide selection of housing at all price points for a growing city, and good health care, with a big, new hospital being built on the Darkside. Along with the explosive growth comes growing pains--for Pattaya traffic congestion being one of the big pains that needs work.

My Dad, born in 1914, used to say the same thing--but about a black man as president. He lived long enough--he died in 2009 at age 95--to see a black man elected president, and a black first lady. Actually, although a card-carrying member of the silent majority, he even voted for Obama, which surprised me. That was back in 2008. Now, in the year 2024, I think a woman of color running for president is less of an issue than a black man running was in 2008--even for the silent majority.

For those of you not keeping track, that was lie # 300,159,754,286. Fun fact: that is more lies than McDonald's has served hamburgers, Trump's food of choice.

He's banned from politics but not banned from speaking out. He can still make a difference and rally the voters. He's much-admired, and rightly so.

Smart woman. More teeth gnashing and whining for spoiled, crybaby Trump.

My god, what a whiny, pathetic crybaby. A couple years in prison will do him a world of good.

Curious how the 'visa system became a nightmare' for you. I've been here 14 years and, as I said in an earlier post, the only change was health insuance required for my type of retirement visa. Keep 800,000 in the bank year-round, do 90-day 4 times a year on-line (Immigration even reminds me with an email), and once a year do the 1-year extension. Where's the 'nightmare'?

My spouse and I can strongly second that. Dr. Somchai is truly excellent. We both had lasik with terrific results. In my case, I was told in the US that if I had lasik I would still need to use glasses, either for close vision or distance vision. Since the whole point for me was to ditch glasses, I didn't have it done in the US. When I consulted with Dr, Somchai some 12 years ago, he said he thought he could do the lasik and I would be able to see both close and distant without glasses. And, that was exactly the case. Not having to wear glasses or struggling with uncomfortable contacts has been great. I would suggest an appointment with Dr. Somchai to check your eyes and discuss your options.

Agree. They made a perfectly good one of Jomtien Second Road and it worked ok every time we used it, with sometimes a bit of a wait as some drivers were getting used to it. However, they didn't give drivers a real chance to get used to it; I guess some people complained about it, and soon it was repaced by an extremely long traffic light. I'd rather wait a bit at the circle, like at Dophin Circle--the wait was never as long as the traffic light. Speaking of traffic lights, one has been added to Thepprasit Road and what a disaster. Spouse and I were on the road the other day and we sat and sat and sat and sat. We both said there must be an accident as traffic was backed up and not moving for such a long time. No, a new traffic light--which is timed horribly. We were headed to Thappraya but in the other direction to Sukhumvit the traffic was backed up all the way to the new go cart track. Total mess. Needless to say, we went home by a different road.

Thank you, Republican voters. And, thank you, Fred Trump. We know Donald's totally wacko but doesn't hurt to hear we are right from a family member.

And then there's Trump, the worst president in US history. Always an exception to the rule.

Incorrect headline. They were her spoken thoughts to friends. The headline writer might have used 'private thoughts'. After some 70 years on the throne, and having met thousands of people, I suspect the Queen was a good judge of character, or lack of it. She definitely had an accurate take on Donald from the get-go. Pity she was forced to spend time with him. But, for crown and country . . .

I believe the scientific term to describe Trump is 'totally wacko'. Only someone totally wacko would go out of their way to both badly insult and alienate the Republican governor of Georgia, one of the very important swing states he needs to win. Only someone totally wacko would go out of their way to alienate the huge and dedicated fan base Swift has, riling them up so large numbers of them will likely get themselves motivated to vote for Harris. I, for one, am quite happy he is totally wacko, unless he somehow gets elected--then it gets scary awful.

Saw the headline and my first guess was that complainers would be thrown into public stocks in front of parliament.

Someone planning to retire to Thailand could wait until more than half the year is over and then transfer both the 20 million baht and themselves to Thailand. No tax on the money since they have not been in the country 180 days, so not a tax resident that year.

I've been here since 2010. In those 14 years, the only change was the requirement for health insurance with my type of visa. You can get around this with a different visa type. My country, USA, has a DTA with Thailand so I don't expect to pay any taxes, if the whole tax thing even ever gets off the ground. One improvement made was on-line 90-day reporting. This means only one visit to Immigration a year for the annual renewal. It would be nice if 90-day was eliminated altogether but, still, not bad. Looking at neighboring countries, Thailand still seems like a good choice for expats, especially when things like health care and housing variety are factored in.