DonniePeverley

How is a Chinese tourist different to a European tourist?

Thailand had one of the highest tourist numbers in the world in 2023. At what point do they stop obsessing with China and a few other countries? They should stop looking at numbers, and look at quality tourists. Tourists who will spend in Thailand. Not tourists who book 'everything' on a zero dollar holiday before they leave their country, or tourists who come on an extreme low budget.

Oh dear .... where do we start?

Personally i think once you move abroad and leave the UK, you should have no rights to claim on pensions and come back to use the NHS. Free loaders.

I was in Pattaya a few weeks ago. There was often talks of politics, and honestly it was soul destroying. I'm not exaggerating when i say 99.9999% of British immigrants living in Pattaya are racist / xenophobic. Primarily everything revolved around immigration, and how Britain should not allow foreigners in. The irony that they too were immigrants in another country, and on top of that they were hardly the 'model type immigrants' Britain could be proud of in Pattaya (boozy sex immigrants) was lost on them. Any attempts to counter balance the talks (ie the official statistics state that immigration economically brings in more than it takes out, the need for workers in the NHS, low skilled jobs, etc didn't matter was usually met with greater degrees of racism. There was one faith that seemed to bother them more. Soul destroying, and i just avoid any Brit in Pattaya. Furthermore, if any of them engage in politics i walk away.

Is this why they have opened the borders for everyone and their dogs ?

At the risk of wafting through 15 pages - can someone give me a summary of whats going on.

They're aiming for 40 million tourists this year. Most from India and China. I expect some 'youtubers' 'tiktokers' from these countries etc doing 'RANDOM' content videos around Thailand.

Mass tourism turning Thailand into a tourist state. Horrific for anyone living here.

The flags were out in force over the weekend.

They're back.

Why do we have a day by day account on Chinese tourists ? They're back (unfortunately). Those who said they wouldn't return were talking nonsense. It's just been a bit slower than other countries. There is over a billion Chinese people. The well of Chinese head to Europe and Americas. The bottom of the barrel head to Thailand. It's mass tourism that will ruin cities like Bangkok and some great beach resorts. But well this current lot want that. We don't need a day by day coverage on chinese tourists.

It's a shame then the local authorities of Bangkok have removed all street food. This is why people travel to Bangkok - to see the hussle bussle. Not malls or empty pavements. People want street food, street markets, etc

Visitors from Europe, America, Australia has flatlined or fallen. Why would you go to a resort like Phuket when you can get luxury vacations elsewhere in peace. Basically Thailand wants mass tourism, to hell with locals and to hell with the experience.

My partner has an O visa with our child in education. However, with Thai logic the other parent (usually father) isn't allowed an O visa to stay. Regardless, i have working commitments in London and travel back and forth regularly. However, i becoming increasingly concerned by the volume of times i arriving on visa exemption. I never exceed staying here 30 days. Infact i am sometimes only here for a few weeks, before heading back to London for 3 weeks. My question is - is there a limit to the volume of times you can enter on visa exemption ? We have a family wedding coming up in Singapore, and will be returning within a few days, thus am becoming concerned i will get another visa exemption stamp on my passport - and they are really topping up !

Unless everyone is paying digitally, there is no way they can be anywhere near certain that income from tourim is that much. No where near, and not in Thailand. Chinese, Indian tourism is really scraping the barrel in terms of looking for quality high spending tourism. But they seemed determined to just get as many people in as possible regardless of the long term impact it will have in turning away quality high spending tourists.

So it's 2024 and we've got no clarification. Welcome to Thailand.

What the hell are you talking about? Virtually every major economy does this.

Hmmm that kind of data collection is open to plenty of abuse, especially self reporting. I would accept airport arrivals, but "traffic movements, etc" is a no for me.

Pattaya has masses of visitors from within Bangkok. Still how are they counting Pattaya numbers? Hotel occupancy? Arrivals at Utapoa?

Yes but are these transit routes as some are saying, thus inflating the figures for arrivals. Or are these routes actually people travelling between the two countries ? One thing that hurts the likes of London and New York these days is most work is now remotely done. So business wise they will see lesser numbers.

Is Bangkok a hub? Can you tell me a flight path that connects in Survanabhumi and goes onwards? I see nothing major. Singapore for sure. They have Emirates, Qatar connecting there for onwards flights to Australia with Qantas.

I think some of us are in major denial here. From my experience in India, they will hit you at the source of the banks.

They will go further and incorporate everyone soon enough. Furthermore who the hell would want to retire in Malaysia. It's dull.

It will only be time before Phillipines and Malaysia go down this route too. India did this a few years ago.