kinyara

Soft Power = Big Budgets = you know what, headed by a Shinawatra. A nice couple of jolly boys outings to Japan an Germany for the entourage to kick things off. Nice work if you can get it.

Forgive me for being sceptical the Office that can't even manage the construction of a section of pavement to an acceptable standard is going to be able to solve the slightly more challenging problem of air quality. As far as I'm concerned locally their modus operandi of continued civil vandalism for zero public benefit contributes to the problem.

We're almost at the stage, January 2024 onwards, where you can actually measure country by country arrival growth or decline between comparable months of the post-pandemic years, i.e. Jan 2023 vs Jan 2024 forward. We've had 6 pages of the usual individual theories sprinkled with personal bug-bears which are all very predictable, it will be far more interesting and relevant to me at least whether and to what extent arrivals wise they actually translate into reality. Will Thailand be able to grow individual country numbers from 2023 to 2024 against a challenging world economic backdrop, if they do then that suggests to me foreign tourism is far from in the death spiral the majority on here seem to think it is.

Can't wait to see his miraculous return to health when he is officially free, the next farce will be arranging the smooth return of Yingluck and I wonder how long they will wait to facilitate that one.

I only do a physical printout when I'm going in at extension renewal time, download the approval file to a usb dongle and pop into a Kodak shop close by.

I haven't been to other tourists towns/cities recently but I think that's a very fair reflection of the state of the infrastructure in Pattaya these days. Walking around the daily obstacle course of appalling pavements or stuck in a baht bus on the central circuit as yet more holes are dug up and filled in for no practical benefit always designed for maximum high season inconvenience, I question the level of tourism they deserve for the state of the public services they provide.

A quote from the lady in charge in the article, " Foreign tourism will become 27% of Thailand's GDP by 2027, and the country must move to become less dependent on foreign tourism from now on ". Given, that as I understand it, foreign tourism in recent years has hovered around 10-12% of GDP, and in light of the difficult issues she has highlighted they are currently facing, I find that expectation utterly bizarre. It may be she got her figures mixed up but with some of the other things I've read from her so far, notably the PR disaster re Chinese police assisting tourists, I'm beginning to think she is out of her depth. " She hails from a family with ties to public service, her father being the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, make of that what you will.

It's been reported before that it is the lower end price sensitive tour group end of the Chinese market that is most affected by their domestic economic squeeze and higher cost of travel, I think those groups are historically more concentrated in the resort cities like Pattaya and I'm certainly not seeing any evidence of an upsurge in Pattaya since they introduced the visa concessions. Perhaps what you're seeing in Bangkok is more of the independent travel segment of the market. I hardly think Thailand would understate their arrival figures and they've so far given no indication a large increase in overall Chinese numbers is happening currently.

When I worked in Thailand I was on 300,000 a month tax free with 2-3 months annual bonus, other than the additional cost of renting a serviced apartment in a hotel during the week for 35,000 rather than face a daily 130 km round trip drive from my home, my spending wasn't any different to the way of life I lead now on 15% of that figure. I think it helps that I recognised fairly early on that becoming overly immersed in the nighlife scene was a waste of time and money for me and not the key to future happiness. Good luck spending whatever budget you want, you'll be welcomed with open arms or more appropriately in your case open legs by the recipients of your largesse, I just hope for your sake you have something to show for your lifestyle choice a few years down the line.

Jomtien office. When I got my new passport over a year ago my first online report with that new passport was accepted so I would indeed try it online 14 days before due date first. Nothing was said to me regarding a new TM30 either when I was transferring my extension of stay stamp to the new passport, HOWEVER the issue was raised when I went to renew my extension of stay in May, 6 months later. When I asked why they needed a new one since I hadn't left the country they said it was because I had a new passport !!!. I didn't do it then as the queues were horrendous and I was leaving the country a week later, so just did it via my condo office when I returned.

Simply not the case. At the start of the year the clearly stated target was a range of between 24-30 million, fairly broad and acknowledged by them to be heavily dependent on the level of the Chinese recovery. Whilst they did downgrade the likely figure from China from 5 million to the now expected 3.5 million as it became clear they were staying away, the overall figure has stayed consistent in the mid-point of their target and has been reported as such.

Garbage article from one of these online advertising sites pretending to be a news outlet, TAT's target last year was 10 million and they exceeded that.

No idea where you read that as it was widely reported they reached 25 million on December 3rd.

The only country I compare it to is Vietnam since that's regularly cited as a main and future regional competitor, sharing the same economic challenges re the cost of long-haul travel and equally popular with the Chinese etc. Up to November both countries were running at exactly the same level of their 2019 numbers, 62%.

They got China wrong, however it looks like the total number of tourists will fall within the middle of TAT's estimated range of 24-30 million. The non-Chinese levels compared to 2019 aren't that bad despite the doomsday sabre rattling on here.

Received online approval this morning after having submitted Friday afternoon. This was my first online report after returning from overseas, so no problems for me. I should add for completeness that as usual my condo office submitted my arrival via the online TM30 system. 2 weeks ago were notified by our office that Immigration had notified them that this facility was being withdrawn and individuals would have to do their TM30 reporting themselves. I retain my original TM30 and a printout of the office submission this time as Immigration were asking me to do a new one due to a new passport when I renewed my extension prior to leaving this last time. Hopefully enough proof not to be an issue when I renew in April

You really need to equate your gushing praise with the nature of the accolade.

Will do, submitted it online this afternoon so just waiting for approval.

I think it's more of a small Go-Go format than a bar like his place next door. Pretty unhealthy job/lifestyle I'd say, I can think of a few of the " successful " managers from the past that have ended up on the bones of their backside with little to show for their life other than health or financial problems. lt's not my scene anymore but the last time I was in one about a year ago in Jomtien an Indian/Arab looking guy bottled the female manager and a pretty vicious fight ensued, thinking about that incident in the one in Buakow the other night. Not a prude but it was probably what put me off finally going into one ever again.

Whatever format/categories Quicken presents the financial information you provide it with, just set up your own spreadsheet to do the same. You do the hard work providing the information, not the dedicated financial program.

Your timeline is a bit off he only opened it a year ago, no idea if he was trying to sell it from the start. He's quite shrewd in my opinion, plays the struggling bar owner for sympathy whereas I think the reality is somewhat different. I wonder if the guy that bought the Go-Go off him has realised his mistake yet.

He sold it about a month or so ago.

A rather bizarre take on the massive shortfall in Chinese tourists - we still get more than countries like Kazakhstan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. I'd hazard a guess those countries aren't suffering from the impact of a 75% drop in their largest tourist market.

He clearly does understand that his 90 days resets, he says he re-entered on the 27th August and tried to do it online when he posted on the 15th November, which was the 14 days before permissable date before his 90 day deadline. I will confirm myself in a weeks time as I am in the same situation as the poster you replied to.

No it doesn't, it fits exactly where and when trouble is likely to happen for those single adults here for the nightlife side of things. As the replies pointed out to your post a few days ago, families don't take their kids to a Go-Go bar in Soi Buakhao in the early hours of Sunday morning.