kinyara

Official arrival figures for January and February 2023 : Russia - 202,759 & 186,103 Ukraine - 4,652 & 3,881 As someone mentioned previously difficult to gauge the scale of the " permanent " issue without the monthly departure numbers, and also those figures and ongoing arrival/departure numbers will include an amount of the same people, anybody's guess how significant.

Well you certainly were last year, hopelessly wrong.

As I suspected February's official numbers showed another month on month drop from January. Dec 2022 - 2,241,195 Jan 2023 - 2,144,948 Feb 2023 - 2,113,550 Whilst it's in line with the low end of the govt 2023 target range seems like there is a different narrative that can be taken in interpreting the figures with respect to " rocketing back ".

The scum have been away for 3 years but they are back with a vengeance with their laundries. It's a shame.

No-one seems to have noticed that January was the first month since reopening that tourist numbers actually dropped month on month to 2.1 million, wouldn't be surprised if the February number released next week is lower again than January. 6 million in Q1 shows numbers have plateaued pre a significant Chinese arrival recovery. It's all down to the level of that Chinese recovery from now to the year end where they end up between their low 24 million and high 30 million range for 2023.

I don't knowwho the Tourist Council of Thailand is, other than than a clickbait vehicle for that Pattaya News advertising comic, but the government/TAT target is 25 million, up from the 10 million target they exceeded in 2022. With 2.1 million visitors arriving in December and additional airline capacity coming back through the year the official 25 million target seems perfectly achievable and realistic. Where are all the guys who said the 10 million target was a joke last year ?

Did you enjoy your holiday and are you glad to be back in Pattaya ?

Tell us more, what were the circumstances ? It's not just the 17,000, it's obviously had a severe effect on your mental health evidenced by the fact you have to post ad-nauseam on any police related story.

That's exactly my approach, in the case of immigration for me I doubt it takes up 1 hour of my entire year. In the case of the driving licence renewal it's only every 5 years, I accept the day as a necessary write-off. That said you can at least help yourself, mine falls due in January next year, ( like the OP's now), but rather than wait until the annual masses turn up at the height of the high season I'll go 3 months early in October as permitted. To be honest now that it requires 2 trips, the one off agent fee effectively spread over 5 years, involving being chauffered out there sounds like a reasonable option. OP, I fail to see the relevance of the situations in Krabi and Chiang Mai if you have decided you'd rather live in Pattaya. Presumably there are some positive aspects of life here that made you make the move.

I agree with you and I think it would have to involve a larger building for starters as I think one of their biggest challenges is simply the lack of internal space. I had the jabs in Central Festival same as you and the seating area alone where we waited after having them was probably not far off if not larger than that in the immigration office. If you compared the snaking queue to get the jab it was probably just as long if not longer than waiting outside the immigration office. If the business and tourist expansion plans for the next 5-10 years for this area materialise, ( U-Tapao expansion etc ), seems inevitable it will have to involve a relocation or additional facility for immigration. I'm glad I only have to go there for one application a year, imagine have to work there every day. Pity they couldn't do a swap with the Tax office across the road, it's a much bigger building and I'm pretty sure there's less customers paying tax than there is requiring immigrations services. ????

Is there a way that people access these topics without going through the regional sub-forum heading !! How many times ????

Don't forget for a lot of countries Thailand extended it to 45 days on arrival, so you arrive pre-Christmas when numbers were clearly picking up and it's about now you would go down and get an extra 30 days if you had planned on staying. I think the Russian market and the element that wish to remain for as long as possible is the most obvious non-normal factor. If they can somehow get 1 year visa's they could well also be opening bank accounts and getting driving licenses each of which requires residence certificates from immigration.

Correct and clarified in a subsequent post reply to the same point from Buick, build in the lead time first time so your renewal falls Sep/Oct.

All I would say is they must be expecting a bumper revenue year from domestic tourism if they are expecting to hit 80% of 2019 levels, my reasoning being that their volume target for international tourists is only 25/39.8 = 63% and I don't see why they would expect a massive uplift in their spending behaviour even factoring in the impact of domestic inflation. I see 25 million foreign tourists as realistic but that 80% figure seems over-optimistic to me.

The renewal falling in line with Sep/Oct, so build the 3 month lead time into that. I decided to do mine late May for annual travel reasons and I've never experienced any big log jam, usually numbers tail off post Songkran. As you highlight avoiding the first week in May is key due to holidays. ( another added this year ), so I always go the second week.

You said you've been in Jomtien since June 2021 so you didn't have to plan a pandemic it was in full swing, so you missed taking advantage of a rather large window of opportunity. Similarly you can renew your driving licence 3 months before expiry date, I'm sure it would have been a little less time consuming queueing wise if you had gone end of October rather the wait to peak high season at immigration. The point is not leaving things until they can't wait but to schedule for less busy periods where possible. Do we take it you are no longer a happy camper.

99 baht breakfast, I enjoyed it several times. Don't bother frequenting the place now as all I read on the restaurant reports is how high the RH prices are compared to other venues. I was getting my regular quality Bangkok hotels for between 450-600, outstanding value, now they are 3 times that. It was at least a good time to take advantage of what was on offer.

I decided is was a good opportunity to open an additional bank account during COVID when business activity in Pattaya was at an all time low and immigration was devoid of tourists, there are ways and means of helping yourself minimise official hassles with a bit of planning. I'd always recommend anyone going to be based in Pattaya contemplating retirement to ensure their initial Non O is obtained in Sep/Oct.

Is she really saying something that contradicts officialdom ? What she said, " Many of the restaurants yet to recover are seafood restaurants that are dependent on the Chinese ". If you are catering to a market that hasn't been back until now it's hardly surprising you are yet to see a recovery. All the powers that be that I have seen quoted have highlighted the importance of the Chinese market in the overall tourism recovery, hence their glee at China allowing them to travel again. What it does seem to contradict in this lady's case is the view expressed by the likes of Leaver that the Chinese are just Walking Street gawpers who don't actually patronise businesses on the street, in her case she is confirming they were/are her main customers. She is of course a Thai business owner who her about to arrive Chinese customers will be paying in Thailand with money brought into Thailand, an additional example that goes against the grain of those that are in denial regarding the spending patterns of the overall Chinese market.

I'm not solely focussed on tourist numbers, as I said and as you quoted me I have not yet seen any official baht figures reported yet for this high season. I presume you haven't either so don't have any value or actual factual knowledge to add to that aspect of the discussion.

Haven't seen any official spend figures reported yet for high season, they usually seem to lag the more straight forward arrivals figures. I'd be watching for when the first monthly decline in arrivals happens this year and what level numbers are at when that happens to see if their 2023 target of 25 million is realistic in the current climate. I personally think it's achieveable just as I thought their 10 million for last year was back in July looking at the monthly recovery trend. I don't see any reason to be overly pessimistic given the level of recovery we have seen even without the Chinese market until now.

Current reality is certainly a lot better than many on this board predicted pre high season. All the talk of how Pattaya wasn't going to recover centred on the high cost of airfares and cost of living increases that were already in play. The absence of the major tourist markets Russia and China was another common reason cited. As it turns out none of those doomsday scenarios seems to have caused a noticeable effect on the recovery, the high level of Russian visitors now seems to be more of a concern than their predicted absence and no doubt the same will be true of the Chinese market in the coming months.

Never mentioned it, from what I've read on that separate topic the only foreigners that will be exempted are those with a work permit, I guess as they are paying local tax on earnings.

TAT has no input in compiling the figures, they make their forecasts but actual reporting is not their responsibility or within their control.

I think you might be right, pretty sure the December figure will be confirmed at over 2 million so January might be the first month that will experience a decline since international arrivals restarted. Definately part of the reason they were so eager to start getting the Chinese back in just as the Western segment drops off after the xmas/high season rush.