kinyara

7 months actual data + 5 month forecast based on inward flight capacity, not exactly rocket science. At the start of the year their published forecast range was sensibly cautious at within the 24-30 million due to Chinese uncertainty, looks likely it will be in the middle of that range.

If you don't have an income source within Thailand effectively a sound currency risk hedge, knowing that if you are committed to living here one of your likely biggest single regular monthly outgoings is taken out the equation currency fluctuation wise. I thought it was part of a sensible reason to buy back in 2004 with the £ at 70. Had half my purchase price back in rent when I was away for long work periods, but now I enjoy it full-time. Best decision I ever made here.

Watched the Netflix documentary " The Minimalists " during COVID and it struck a real chord with me. It's not about sacrificing ownership of things that make you happy, it's more about avoiding falling into the trap of overly consumerist influence and wasting time, effort and financial resource acquiring surplus "stuff" that you can in reality live without. For me the concept has actually provided a bit of focus and contributed an improvement in an aspect of my living.

The absence of Chinese compared to the 5 million forecast is the sole reason for numbers likely to end up in the middle of TAT's 24-30 million range forecast, nothing else.

Apart from the fact the article refers to the Tourist Council of Thailand and not TAT, TAT's forecast for this year was between the range of 24 million to 30 million which it will be, so no they won't be way off the mark.

A perfect example of why it's never a good idea to abdicate your personal responsibility to check your own annual personal tax calculation. Astonished given how regularly you bring up the wider issue of frozen pensions you didn't concentrate your efforts on what was actually within your ability to control income wise. For the majority of us it really is a very simple matter of adding up a few annual figures comprising gross income and deducting from that one figure for your personal allowance, apply the % tax rate and compare that figure to what has been deducted. An exercise in basic arithmetic and information gathering. I'm not surprised at the emotive misleading headline, it's the icing on the cake.

Exactly I'll never get bored of that, in a nutshell my favourite relaxed drinking scenario taking in the view watching the constantly passing often bizarre sideshow ,and safely parked up indoors before the headline makers come out to play.

I should have added, " aren't regarded by others ", I like nothing better than sitting across the road enjoying a beer or coffee looking out at that view. However I wouldn't dream of actually swimming in that water, but I don't have to I have a nice pool, which was my point of best of both worlds for me.

I think having a nice pool area to both relax and get a bit of easy exercise in is why it doesn't bother me that Pattaya and Jomtien beaches aren't regarded as up to the standard of other locations in Thailand. It's one of those points I'm willing to accept as a trade-off in weighing up the total package of liveability. An early morning walk along the beach followed by relaxing by the pool is the ideal combination for me.

Where exactly is Nirun Condo ? I'm not thinking of downgrading from my palatial abode, I just don't want to accidently stray into the hood and get car-jacked by a desperate gang of vest-less Chang'ed up OAP's.

Thanks for the clear and helpful update.

Thanks very much, excellent news that makes things much easier for me planning wise. ????

Do I take it when you say "as it was paid" means you were able to follow it up and get it corrected during the tax year rather than wait until after the tax year ended ? I'm anticipating the need to apply for a refund when I start drawing my SIPP next year and would like to sort it immediately if possible. I've already got and keep my Govt Gateway A/c active.

You should have knocked on the window and asked the guy living in it.

For guys like me who used to reach a maximum of 800k in our bank only at the time of renewal then run the figure down by normal spend, they effectively increased the amount to 1 million + a few years ago by introducing the 2 month before 3 month after rule. At the time I thought it was a clever way of raising the requirement while avoiding the full on negativity of a headline grabbing baht figure increase.

There would have to be a pretty dramatic upturn in the second half of the year from current levels to reach their 5 million target for China, 1.4 million as at June with 311k for that month itself.

Same and only reliable source as the figures used in your graph, Ministry of Sports & Tourism reporting monthly, quarterly and annually on the data compiled by the National Office of Statistics.

No not 52% of 2019, the trend is clear even ignoring the huge disparity caused by the absence of Chinese : 2023 vs 2019 January - 58% February - 59% March - 64% April - 68% May - 74% June - 74%

I'd disagree that there are " half the tourists now ", monthly numbers are now running 75% of the same month back in 2019, with the absence of the less bar Pattaya bar oriented Chinese market being the single most important reason for the shortfall. If you're in a business type that catered/caters to the Chinese I'd agree you'll be doing badly based on less than 30% arrivals, not so for other traditional Pattaya markets like UK and Germany which have recovered well.

Breaking news : man discovers it's a bad idea to live in a place he detests.

On the basis there seemed to be many who were prepared to ring the bell to buy his girls drinks when they weren't even in the country during Covid, judging by his expansion I think it's reasonable to think he's done well enough when they actually turned up in person when travel resumed. It must take a bar attracting regular beers drinkers a lot of sales just to match the profit from one single bell ring for a round of ridiculously priced shots for the girls. It's the only business model that stacks up.

The return of Mr Fiction. Why would we believe the OP's story when he clearly made up a story about being in the Kilkenny the other night when it's been closed for months ?

The article is only about the Chinese market, it's badly written so a lot of posters have missed that rather important point. Chinese visitors were over 10 million in 2019, TAT's forecast was for 5 million this year, ( 50% ), however only 1.4 million arrived as of June.

Looking at the country breakdown for June the pattern is very clear, the noticeable month on month increases are from the Asian region, which more than compensate for the low season fall off in Western markets. Unless you hang out at tourist attractions or venues popular with Asian tourists you're unlikely to notice.

Given that, wouldn't you have expected to see a noticeable rise in popularity already ? It hasn't happened so far, it's only back to the previous level pre-Covid.