kinyara

Or tourists across the board are also spending less than they used to due to the economic situation in their home countries. Tourism like every other industry isn't a smooth guaranteed upward trend of increased revenue, in many ways the opposite since it's discretionary spend. What are you suggesting : 1) Stop admitting tourists when you hit a certain arbitrary number that somebody thinks is enough 2) Only let people in if they promise to spend a certain amount per day HIstory tells us Thailand is very proactive at adjusting its visa policy when economic necessity dictates. Is it the least bit surprising given what COVID reaped tourism wise and the general economic situation here at the moment, which isn't great, they are trying to get tourism numbers back to previous levels. What is the alternative employment wise when you are trying to stimulate the economy ? Seems to me I've read quite a lot lately about factories closing in traditional big employment industries like car manufacturing, laying off several hundred workers at a time on the one hand, whereas the MOU's signed for the new tech they are trying desperately to attract will take time to develop.

We all know there are negatives that comes with tourism anywhere but throwing in sweeping derogatory generalisations of long-stayers and tourists for effect definately ignores the bigger picture. 1) Draft dodging Russians - ( long-stayers who can afford to acquire property has nothing to do with your original post of tourists and a lack of spend ). They have as much right to be here as you. 2) Drunken sex tourists 3) Visa type abusers

Easy for you to criticise when you are not one of the millions of working class Thais servicing the tourist industry who rely on customer volume to scrape a living. Vendors, restaurant & bar staff, moto & taxi drivers, housekeeping staff in guesthouses, 2 star hotels etc etc.

Rather than the usual Festive photo opportunity of hundreds of cops on Walking Street, I'd be far more reassured safety wise if they actually report and publicise a heavy lock up sentence in cases like this. Bordering on attempted murder.

Which is exactly why Thailand wants and needs high tourism numbers. It absorbs a less skilled, less educated workforce.

Must admit I didn't realise Japan was a mass tourist market attracting even more numbers than hopelessly tourist overrun Thailand

Peaceful as ever in my well run low rise condo. No short term tourists as they enforce the regulations re AirBNB/short stays. We get snowbird owners arriving now but they tend to be older respectful couples who appreciate the peace and quiet. Very rarely get kids around. Plenty of choice of cheap places for the tourist riff raff thankfully.

As usual from that author, painting a pretty inaccurate picture for the paper's clickbait narrative. He quotes the 2011 figure as the peak of UK tourism at 900k, and said it halved in the mid 2020's. In 2023 as we came out of COVID with available airline capacity still not back to normal 817k UK tourists came back, and with 739k to October this year it's highly likely 2011's figure will be exceeded. Thailand looks as popular as ever with UK tourists in 2024.

Nice cheery article to get us in the Christmas spirit.

Is there a 1 year retirement visa option in Vietnam yet ? Surely that's the major consideration for a retiree, all the rest is pretty pointless if you can't actually stay there long-term.

If I wasn't already retired in Thailand but dead set at making the move, if I was planning on bring in the money to purchase big ticket items like a condo and a car, that would be the year I managed my time in country to less than 180 days.

I was talking about those on retirement visa status. The Japanese would certainly have been the biggest community of working foreigners back then and are probably still significant in the business community but they would already be taxpayers under income tax regulations. I seriously doubt the Japanese figure significantly in the currently retiree population affected by this tax law change

As you say it is hard to generalise, if they have all the above are they really likely to uproot themselves and potentially family to save what in reality with personal allowances a relatively small amount of tax.

I don't even think there is even a couple of hundred thousand retired expats in the country. I'm sure I read a figure of 60,000 quoted by the head honcho a few years ago. I think we generally overstate our importance.

They are likely attracting a lot of new longer term stayers under the new DTV visa, more flexible/mobile under 50's staying up 180 days as opposed to the over 50 retirees who may alter their personal spend. They may lose on one policy change and gain with another.

I agree with your approach if that works better for you, I'd do it myself if it became too significant a liability or too onerous admin wise. You can shout it from the rooftops for your personal satisfaction, but I doubt your local immigration officer or government official gives a monkey's about your decision. You and maybe even a few thousand expats departing pale into insignificance in the grand scheme of things especially with tourist numbers growing by millions each year again.

I didn't bring in anything this year to see how it pans out enforcement/admin wise for others who did by March 2025. I won't be making any changes to my spending in 2025, I own my condo so my annual spend is relatively modest. Looking at the annual allowances my potential tax liability would be around the 10k mark, I believe some on here pay around that for an agent for their visa renewal to save a bit of hassle and 40 minutes of time over a year, so I'm not going to affect a year of lifestyle for the same amount.

Looks like they will be 50% up on last year but still significantly down compared to the 2019 peak. 6.2 million year to date November compared to 11.0 million in 2019.

I've always used my driving licence without an issue at Jomtien immigration. It's one of the forms of address ID they list as acceptable. A copy of your blue book showing the same address just as back-up.

Exactly that's valuable productive time that can be spent sitting at your computer reading and posting thousands of comments on this forum

Arrive from November/December leave from March/April is the normal pattern I would say.

Economic forecasting is normal in all countries, governments rely on it as part of their overall financial/policy planning. Tourism is obviously one of the larger sectors here so gets more focus and reporting. Thailand does seek and cater to quality tourists, however in my view it has always been a primarily a mass market destination. The government relies on it to absorb a labour force of limited skills and education.

I look positively at it this way, the guys using agents make it easier for those of us that do it ourselves by firstly reducing queuing time and secondly lining the pockets of the immigration staff. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I've experienced it getting easier and quicker year by year, Really they are doing us a favour, thanks guys.

In what respect can't they handle the current level of tourism - 35 million ? The extra 5 million are only likely to come predominantly from China and they are typically short stayers on average. Spread it over 12 months, various locations and 5 days each, it's not that much to absorb. Personally looking at the continued low number of Chinese this year compared to 2019 levels I don't think they will achieve 40 million in 2025.

There is no difference between transfers this year and next year tax wise. December last year was when you should have done it if you wanted a years grace. All dependent on enforcement of course.