kinyara

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.

I doubt it, due to their slow bureacratic system of government Vietnam are playing catch up to Thailand since foreign travel resumed. They haven't yet returned to their peak 45% of Thailand's numbers they were at in 2019. Vietnam also relies heavier on the Chinese market than Thailand so will feel the Chinese slowdown to a greater degree.

Not seeing any significant war impact, more a case like other European countries of normal service resumed after Thailand fully reopens. The level and pattern of arrivals this year is pretty much the same as 2019 - average daily arrivals 2019 - 4,060 vs 2023 ( to June ) - 4,373 Jan - 202,759 Feb - 186,103 Mar - 177,805 Apr - 115,706 May - 58,467 Jun - 50,734

Wow, I can't imagine flushing 7 years of my life down the toilet living in a place I didn't like. Were you incapable of taking your life and future into your own hands and relocating somewhere you liked ? What a waste, life is too short.

Actually just checked and the official figures were actually released on July 21st, as I alluded to in previous posts June YTD arrivals were 12,914,691, so a monthly consistent figure of 2,221,201. A similar level of 2.1 million, not 3 million, expected to achieve the 15 million mentioned in the original post. I think that answers your original question.

Maybe you should ask the publisher.

Jan - 2,144,948 Feb - 2,133,550 Mar - 2,219,040 Apr - 2,182,100 May - 2.013,852 As you can see unlike in the past April this year was higher and May only 100k lower than the traditional peak months of Jan and Feb, it reflects the recovering situation which as we know is still only 2/3's of the pre-covid peak. I haven't forgotten June is low season and I did say "circa" in recognising the potential drop, I just don't see it going all the way down to 1.3 million in June which is what it would have be if 12 million was correct. That is September 2022 level when the country was only gearing up after lifting all restrictions.

No I haven't experienced any unfriendly or nasty encounters that would make me think about it. Due to technology advances my need to visit official type places like immigration, bank, City Hall, internet & phone provider etc have been pretty much eliminated from the equation, good service and interaction when I have. Anywhere else I'm visiting regularly is providing me a service like shopping. entertainment, laundry, hairdresser etc, and if I did experience it it would be once only and I'd take my business elsewhere, but not too Chiang Mai that would be a bit extreme.

That is not an official number, the official figures are always released at the end of the following month not at the start. It follows a set calender of Government statistical data released. No idea where that figure came from but as you highlight yourself it doesn't fit in with the 15 million figure mentioned in relation to July and more obviously it would mean only 1.3 million arrived in June which is clealy unlikely given 2 million arriving every month so far. I'd expect both months will be circa 2 million meaning May YTD - 10.7m, June - circa 12.7m, July circa 14.7m.