Thai environmentalist warns of grim future if cap is not put on foreign tourists

[hobz]

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

I tend to agree with the post above, but I would add a point or two...

 

In addition to the crime and safety aspect, there simply comes a time where saturation is achieved. I truly love some of the temples in Thailand, but I will not visit them if there are too many people or if I have to wait too long. Further, If I fly into Thailand and end up waiting for several hours to get through immigration, then I am not going to do it anymore. If I go to a popular beach and I need to really search for a good spot because there are too many people, I'll either go to another beach or give it a miss. Etc. Etc. Etc.

 

My point is that, to me at least, there is a time where things are "full" and Thailand is approaching that point. And, once you reach that point, things then begin to go downhill rapidly; I hope Thailand has the wisdom to not let it get that far.

 

you are not chinese. Chinese people have no souls. (joke from South park).

seriously I don't think Chinese people are bothered by overcrowding.

[the guest]

I am recommending many of my friends not to come to Thailand. 

 

1) It's becoming too expensive.

2) The hoard of people in the Kingdom is no longer viable as a tropical paradise destination.

3) The infrastructure is inadequate in moving people around.

 

Sorry Thailand, but greed ruined it for everybody.

[hobz]

1 hour ago, bsdthai said:

Enviromentalists? Where are they? Get them to all the rural towns bordering forest and public land. Every stinking thai is allowed legally/illegally to take as many dam trees as they want, officials selling off dirt and alike whilst locals burn tons and tons of rubbish daily. Blame thais first! Didnt i just read about more hospital  rubbish in pattaya? Thais need to get things more oganized in a cleaner way for the tourists. Travel to many places in the woold and there is rules, fence lines, cleaner transport and such. Thais have to organize things better and stop blaming tourists. More xenaphobia and lack of responsability.

thailand has plenty of good laws but zero law enforcement. thai police are useless and there is no fixing that in the foreseeable future. sorry.

[tifino]

 

shooting themselves in the foot - by capping the sex trade.

Effectively condomming themselves out of breeding more Baht

[geisha]

IT makes me very sad to see what has happened here. Arriving for the first time in the 80 s , a wonderful exciting and exotic Bangkok, followed by a trek up north where we hardly ever  passed or saw another foreigner, met great people on the way too. Then down south to Phuket, Wow, so beautiful natural beaches, lovely memories , and Thai friends I made there I still have and cherish. Phi Phi was a dream , and all the other little islands we went to on our longtail fishing and snorkling trips. Sadly, all this has changed. I could cry when I see what thailand has become. Yes, I know this has happened to all the little paradises of the world, but that’s no consolation! I’m still here, but , in my minds eye, I still see that view of the palm trees and the beaches from the view point at Naiharn. 

[Iumentum]

1 hour ago, robertthesculptor said:

Ah yes xenophobia and racism rule the day.....

One who looks for it will find it anywhere they seek, even when none existing. Maybe you should take a look in the mirror! 

[Nickymaster]

We need more. More, more, more. More tourists, more waste, more crime, more accidents, more street dogs, more polution, more prostitutes, more corruption...

 

 

 

 

[ballpoint]

A burgeoning middle class in countries that previously were not providers of tourists (eg China), coupled with a plethora of low class cost airlines, and this is what you get.  Unless a country is willing to take steps to introduce more stringent / costly visas and/or cut back on the number and capacity of flights into the country, they will keep coming - until things really do reach bursting point and then word of mouth, or word of social media, complete with videos, will stem the tide, and they all swarm to one of the neighbouring countries.  Sadly, the days of being able to trek or take a local bus to a lonely beach and bask in the solitude are long gone.  You can still trek to the beach if you want, but have to make a detour around the international airport that's been built there, avoiding the tour buses and rented motor cycles.

[phantomfiddler]

And about time !

[Easy Come Easy Go]

4 hours ago, smedly said:

I think that if the tourists were aware of exactly what their day trip would be like to begin with they would avoid it.

 

I see no great pleasure in being jammed into an overcrowded  boat being ferried to an overcrowded beach to stand there with 1000 other people then shovelled back on the crowded boat as fast as possible............for what

 

It's exactly the same thing in pattaya only they are ferried around in a tour bus to some hyped up venue like the floating market which I personally find one of the most boring places in Thailand  

Ever been to a music festival? I'm not saying this kind of holiday depiction is my cup of tea, but quite obviously it is of many many people 

[SymS]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Billions being earned in tourist revenue by tourist spending and park fees was not being put back into the parks themselves in improved infrastructure.

So where does the money go? :)

Edited February 3, 2018 by SymS
it = money

[Ulic]

Well, the other way to deal with the issue is to invest some of the money into

facilities (washrooms, garbage recycling, etc.....) so the parks and other tourists

attractions can service the numbers. 

[wombat]

i was under the impression more is better, increase the carbon footprint and the west will throw money at you to reduce it.
win win all round.

[wombat]

44 minutes ago, the guest said:

 

 The infrastructure is inadequate in moving people around.

 

i thought they do a pretty good job....57 million Thai people plus farangs.

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

I tend to agree with the post above, but I would add a point or two...

 

In addition to the crime and safety aspect, there simply comes a time where saturation is achieved. I truly love some of the temples in Thailand, but I will not visit them if there are too many people or if I have to wait too long. Further, If I fly into Thailand and end up waiting for several hours to get through immigration, then I am not going to do it anymore. If I go to a popular beach and I need to really search for a good spot because there are too many people, I'll either go to another beach or give it a miss. Etc. Etc. Etc.

 

My point is that, to me at least, there is a time where things are "full" and Thailand is approaching that point. And, once you reach that point, things then begin to go downhill rapidly; I hope Thailand has the wisdom to not let it get that far.

 

Thailand, wisdom??

[Bluespunk]

14 minutes ago, Easy Come Easy Go said:

Ever been to a music festival? I'm not saying this kind of holiday depiction is my cup of tea, but quite obviously it is of many many people 

I’ve been to many music festivals and many beaches. 

 

The expectations and reasons for going to either one are not the same. 

 

I like my music festivals crowded and my beaches empty. 

 

The reason in each case is the same:  atmosphere

[ThaiTrav]

5 hours ago, gunderhill said:

Waste of  time "money first" if  anything it  will give them an incentive to increase the price.

Hey thats the answer a great idea!! They should put the prices well up , that will cut the numbers going there give them less work and have more or least same amount of revenue to fix stuff! not that they really do fix in reality but it should least line the same pocket whilst solving their overcrowding problem . Obviously is too affordable as is.

[Sydebolle]

Replace Alien or Foreigners with Asians. Your thrive to get "quality tourists" was wrongly translated in "quantity tourists" and seeing these Chinese monsters ransacking Thailand from early mornings to late evenings .......

They eat like pigs (dont believe me = go to any MK in Pattaya over lunch time) under the guided leadership of a illegal Chinese tour guide shouting on top of his/her lungs all across the restaurant. They pee anywhere along Pattaya beach road in bright day time so go figure what happens to the natural sites of this country. 

Thanks to Kobkarn, the deaf and blind former minister of tourism and the military administration with ridiculous law enforcement endeavours by the man at the helm by intervening on the price of bottled water at the airport ........ 

Combined with the greed of Khon Thai - the outcome is disastrous - how very very very sad 

[davehowden]

There you are, problem fixed.

[thairookie]

Just ban Chinese tourists from China, and everything will be fine.

 

Airlines should be also allowed to ban Chinese tourists from China for the sake of safer air travel.  The Chinese government should introduce a pre-travel examinations for her citizens.  Only those who passed and received a certificate of travel ensuring that they will not force open the doors of the aircraft will be allowed to fly.

[apetryxx]

In the High Sierra Mountains of California there is a spectacular area known as Desolation Valley aka Desolation Wilderness. As a youngster I would hike and fish there, sometimes one could go for a week and not see another human being. It was heaven on earth. Then came the “discovery” and the wilderness became a highway of hikers and their trash. Finally, the U S Forest Service instituted quotas and required permits for entry as well as specific quotas for certain areas and lakes within the the wilderness. Yes, it’s a bit cumbersome but well worth the effort and would probably work in Thailand as well.

[Oziex1]

We see stories of people who have fallen foul of the law by sitting on or allegedly damaging coral when diving, every time I look at the photo of these cases I'm left wondering where exactly is this coral.

 

The marine environment around Thailand clearly is in need of help.

[Mark mark]

Yes, Pee Thon, right on, and I agree with you 100% ... like the People that do not get in, can wait, or go somewhere else, and they probably be quite happy there any way. Like this IS part of Tourism ! ... I spent 2 days playing cards with nice Chinese, local schoolteachers in Kunming airport once, waiting for the elusive flight down to Xishuangbanna .... And it actually turned out to be close to the best part of my holiday ! ...

[marko kok prong]

Tat will make sure this guy has an awful accident.

[PerkinsCuthbert]

There is zero chance of any cap on tourism, simply because there's too much money to be made. Even if the whole coastline of Thailand and all its islands is turned into Patong and Pattaya Beach Road, they won't limit tourism; there is not enough political will and there is too much political influence - and, stupidly enough, the tourists would continue to come anyway.

[Howiehotspur]

Thing is the hoards ,particularly from China , hardly spend any money in real terms , they stay in Chinese owned hotels , Chinese coaches ferry them around , they obey their guide holding a flag and follow them up and down the street .. but you never see them on their own/ couples in shops , restaurants etc .. is it cost effective, on Pattaya beach for example .. daily hundreds and hundreds of speed boats are constantly pilling them on and off taking them over to Koh Larn , to sit on the beach for an hour and into a Chinese owned restaurant for a quick lunch , hoarded back on again . The deasel alone chucked out by these boats can’t be good .  

[natway09]

It has taken how long to realize this ???

I have been saying for 14 years that the infrastructure cannot handle safely nor environmentally 

the vast numbers game.

"Killing the goose that lays the golden egg"     just for greed

[spidermike007]

5 hours ago, Neilly said:

Long way to go yet...this is a beach in Dalian...

 

 

How absolutely horrifying. I might prefer torture or captivity to spending time on that beach. Decades ago, my instincts and every other part of my being told me to avoid massive crowds like that one shown here. I am so grateful for that. When I was young I used to deliberately go to movies on a Friday opening night, to be around 2,000 people. That desire faded pretty early on. Now, I avoid crowds like the Spanish Flu. You would not be able to find me on a beach like that, for anything less than a payment to me of $5,000. And that would be only for an hour or so. That image is utterly unappealing on every level possible. I suppose the Chinese have learned to deal with the masses like that. Not this homey. No way on earth. 

[Eric Loh]

3 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

Chinese monsters ransacking Thailand from early mornings to late evenings .......

They eat like pigs (dont believe me = go to any MK in Pattaya over lunch time) under the guided leadership of a illegal Chinese tour guide shouting on top of his/her lungs all across the restaurant.

Ahem, you mean Chinese from China. Big big distinction in terms of behavior. But I wouldn’t be too harsh on them as most have gone through a tough life before Deng started his free market reform. 

[sambum]

"Billions being earned in tourist revenue by tourist spending and park fees was not being put back into the parks themselves in improved infrastructure."

 

Give that man a banana!

Edited February 3, 2018 by sambum