Thaivisa.com Survey 2007 Results

[george]

THAIVISA.COM SURVEY 2007 Results

The Thaivisa.com Survey 2007 Results can be viewed at:

http://www.thaivisa.com/thaivisa.com-survey-2007.html

A whopping 3,004 members answered the survey, which was performed by market leader Surveymonkey.com on thaivisa's behalf between January 17-22, 2007.

Thanks for your help!

Your feedback and discussion on the survey results are welcome here in this thread!

PS!

The winners of hotel stay and T-shirts will be announced here tomorrow Tuesday 2007-01-23

PS2: All forum members and newsletter recipients was invited to join the survey. If you didn't got an invitation to the Thaivisa survey, you might want to subscribe to Thaivisa Newsletter

PS3: If you have a website or business you want to promote on thaivisa.com, please contact sales[at]thaivisa.com or checkout http://www.thaivisa.com/promotions

[PeaceBlondie]

About 36% of the respondents said they live in Bangkok. That's higher than the percentage of Thais, but it's nowhere near half of the farang.

Almost half of us don't have a motor vehicle. That's surprising.

Many of us are mature, but few of us are decrepit.

[george]

A few thoughts:

A bit surprising is that we are so many Europeans.

Nearly 30% owns a house, and most of us have quite high income.

And it indeed looks like the members are loyal to Thaivisa, the forum moderation gets top rating!

Do we have any professional statistic people here who could help out summarize these figures?

[Robski]

Very interesting that 60% of members polled never post.

[george]

We will try to encourage the "submarines" to begin posting! I might have an idea how to do this.

[Kan Win]

THAIVISA.COM SURVEY 2007 Results

A whopping 3,004 members answered the survey, which was performed by market leader Surveymonkey.com on thaivisa's behalf between January 17-22, 2007.

George, Sorry I did not participate in this one as I got the e-mail on 18th Jan, Thursday and only just got back today 22nd Jan. (As the Thais say "Too Lay-t"

Maybe you should leave it open for at least 7 working days? And not just for a short time.

Just my thinking.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

P.S. The Pun was intended also BTW.

[julie_f]

well i as i always suspected, im in the minority here. Young(ish) female, there isnt many of us!!

[aqua4]

This poll was screwy. You should have separated people into Expats and Tourists from the start and gave each his/her own form.

Example:

[4. Where are you now?]

Other country (Home) 43.6% 1,309

1,309 are not expats living in Thailand as they live elsewhere, yet in[5. Expat or tourist?] 1,554 people claim to be expats from between 1-10 years? How is that possible? Do they think because they have been coming to Thailand on 2 week annual holiday breaks for 10 years they are now expats with 10 years of "living" in Thailand? See how the picture starts to blur? If you wanted to pin people down to being honest, you should have used IP tracking in the poll which would have fixed the country/location.

[8. What kind of visa or visa extension do you have?]

1,690 people live in Thailand, yet amazingly enough 2,227 people have a visa for Thailand?

[10. What kind of Internet connection do you have?]

This should have read ......ADD .....in Thailand as it covers [11. Are you normally happy with the quality of your internet connection?]

[13. What is your yearly income in Thai Baht (THB)?]

It should have read while living in Thailand as en expat. This would include people in regular jobs back in the US or Europe.

[14. Do you have a vehicle in Thailand?]

The reason why 1,373 people (48.7%) voted NO is because most of them don't live here.

Edited January 22, 2007 by aqua4

[dantilley]

Hmm, interesting that in Question 4 1,401 people said they're not in Thailand now, yet in Question 8 only 635 people said they're not in Thailand, less than half the previous number...!

Questions 5 and 9 have similar proportions of "Never Been to Thailand" responses, although the figures are much lower.

Also surprised by the huge number of people who never post, yet still took the time to answer the survey. Good on them!

[pkrv]

George I am unfortunately used to 'marketing' polls that ask skewed (or explicitly do not ask) questions in order to achieve a certain result.

The questions asked and hence the results given are in all probability open and honest. My profuse apologies I was on holiday during this period so did not respond.

Interesting most people still wish a house (not me), and have a high (Thai based) income, I don't use private transport (I too use trains, taxis etc, gave up the Porsche some time ago… now prefer to walk on foot).

[whizzer]

Yes, the survey might be a bit misleading... I wonder how many "expats" living in their home country, answered how much they earn at home and not in Thailand.

[turnip]

.

Edited January 22, 2007 by turnip

[kayo]

hang on,

I for one, stated that I am not in Thailand, not in my country, but elsewhere.

For some of the questions I answered: 3-5 years (time I DID live in lOS)

motorcycle (which I did own when I was in LOS)

rented house (which I did have when I was in LOS)

etc...

[MiG16]

well i as i always suspected, im in the minority here. Young(ish) female, there isnt many of us!!

julie ---its always good to be in that 2% minority or so they say....those that answer differently in most surveys are usually the 2 percent of the abnormal I like being abnormal...as it sounds more fun than normal

one thing about the survey....it had an option where one could choose to say that we are thai, but next question about the visa there was no option that I could choose from....since as thais we dont need any kind of visa to be here

[jellykookabanj]

We will try to encourage the "submarines" to begin posting! I might have an idea how to do this.

I have been tempted to reply on many occassions but haven't bothered. I don't understand why the e-mail I receive from Thai Visa can be over 5 hours old and have many pages of replies even before I receive the information that is on discussion.

What I am saying is that to write a comment when so few people are looking st the site is a waste of time.

Do you have any idea why it can take so long before the e-mail arrives in my inbox.

Many regards from Surin

[Jet Gorgon]

I am a breaking news subscriber only. Maybe more TV members would have completed the form if info was posted in General Topics. Oh, well, there's always 2008.

Interesting too that 90% plus members are boys. Is that why many topics are flogged to death?

[distortedlink]

According to the survey, the majority of earners have incomes of 1000000 baht to 2000000 baht per annum.

Surely these cannot be ex-pats living in Thailand.

Blighmy, that must make people like me who are on just over the required amounts to stay in Thailand (non -Immigrant visa) look hardly worth giving the time of day to in the eyes of the immigration officers when applying for my yearly extension.

If there are these people around in Thailand, I have lots of hard luck tear jerky stories I can tell them about my sad life growing up in an orphanage and later working in the coal mines.

We were so poor when I was a kid that my parents couldn’t afford heating, so my dad had to suck extra strong hot mints and we sat round his mouth all day.

If you are touched by this tragic tale, high earners please send all donations to Thaivisa who will pass them on to me.

[glen]

OK guys (and a few gals), my first post, encouraged by the useful survey results. With any kind of survey there's bound to be different interpretations of the meaning. It may have been useful to have asked a couple of open-ended questions - eg, what do you like most/least about ThaiVisa.com?

Personally, what I have found very valuable is the often well-informed exchanges re Visa extensions. I recently renewed my own OA retirement visa, for the first time in Bangkok. The two previous times Id got it in Canberra. One thing I learned from this is that when the Suan Plu officers say they want a letter from your embassy stating your income, in practice this means that they accept a statutory declaration. For, as the Oz official informed me, 'we dont do that kind of thing' (ie, letters). All they do for 500 baht is graciously stamp your stat dec saying what you say your income is. And I believe the same thing happens at the US embassy.

I also read the google.society.thai newsgroup mostly as a summary of current press reports, but there are so many fruitcakes posting there I dont bother - with some very notable exceptions.

best. Glen

THAIVISA.COM SURVEY 2007 Results[/b]

The Thaivisa.com Survey 2007 Results can be viewed at:

http://www.thaivisa.com/thaivisa.com-survey-2007.html

A whopping 3,004 members answered the survey, which was performed by market leader Surveymonkey.com on thaivisa's behalf between January 17-22, 2007.

Thanks for your help!

Your feedback and discussion on the survey results are welcome here in this thread!

PS!

The winners of hotel stay and T-shirts will be announced here tomorrow Tuesday 2007-01-23

PS2: All forum members and newsletter recipients was invited to join the survey. If you didn't got an invitation to the Thaivisa survey, you might want to subscribe to Thaivisa Newsletter

PS3: If you have a website or business you want to promote on thaivisa.com, please contact sales[at]thaivisa.com or checkout http://www.thaivisa.com/promotions

[ThaiPauly]

The results on income do not surprise me at all, because more people responded that they were over 50, and probably retired with a good pension plus money they had from selling their homes overseas etc.

I would be surprised if many members were deriving anual earnings of 1-2 million baht a year from businesses in Thailand..more likely that they live here and make their money from overseas via the Internet or Exporting. IMHO

Just my 2 satangs worth.

[Jai Dee]

OK guys (and a few gals), my first post, encouraged by the useful survey results.

to Glen.

Good to see a forum lurker get up and join and then post here.

Why don't you stroll over to this thread and say g'day mate.

[terry57]

i liked the bit where it said only 9.5% are australian.

its no wonder you dudes have problems understanding what im on about.

im going to really crank things up now.

coo wee punting friends.

[falux]

Unfortunately, this is the first time I hear about the survey, although I'm subscribed to the news alert and live in LOS. But with 3004 participants, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

[Limbo]

Do we have any professional statistic people here who could help out summarize these figures?

As any 'professional statistic person' knows: There is much more information to be distracted from this basic survey. Should the punch cards come out of the drawer or would the knitting needle do?

Questions about income could be related to country of living and subsequently to the region of Thailand in which respondents are living.

Questions about visa could be related to domicile in Thailand, income and age.

Age could be related to area of living and so on, and so on.

This survey has the potential to answer a multiple of the 18 questions asked by combining the response on the questions.

Anybody familiar with the SPSS and what came after ?

Limbo (retired )

[OlRedEyes]

i liked the bit where it said only 9.5% are australian.

its no wonder you dudes have problems understanding what im on about.

im going to really crank things up now.

coo wee punting friends.

We do get you guys, no worries

Bad beer, bad sheilas, big noise?

[bendix]

The results on income do not surprise me at all, because more people responded that they were over 50, and probably retired with a good pension plus money they had from selling their homes overseas etc.

I would be surprised if many members were deriving anual earnings of 1-2 million baht a year from businesses in Thailand..more likely that they live here and make their money from overseas via the Internet or Exporting. IMHO

Just my 2 satangs worth.

No disrespect to the people who put the survey together, but these income figures cannot be relied on. As someone has already pointed out, most of the respondents have never posted before and a significant chunk don't live in Thailand. So, by default, they will be posting their income from wherever else they live.

I hope the forum management doesn't use this to approach Lexus, Mercedes, LVMH and the Maldives Tourist Board as evidence that they should be advertising on Thai Forum . .

[Jockstar]

I'm an expat that lives in Australia but lived in Thailand for 5 years. BTW i'm from Scotland.

[Jet Gorgon]

i liked the bit where it said only 9.5% are australian.

its no wonder you dudes have problems understanding what im on about.

im going to really crank things up now.

coo wee punting friends.

9.5%. Still too high. I thought you blokes were all sent to East Timor to drill for black gold or something. I lived in Oz for a year in my tender blossoming days and met many blokes. That's why I only stayed for a year.

[Jet Gorgon]

The results on income do not surprise me at all, because more people responded that they were over 50, and probably retired with a good pension plus money they had from selling their homes overseas etc.

I would be surprised if many members were deriving anual earnings of 1-2 million baht a year from businesses in Thailand..more likely that they live here and make their money from overseas via the Internet or Exporting. IMHO

Just my 2 satangs worth.

No disrespect to the people who put the survey together, but these income figures cannot be relied on. As someone has already pointed out, most of the respondents have never posted before and a significant chunk don't live in Thailand. So, by default, they will be posting their income from wherever else they live.

I hope the forum management doesn't use this to approach Lexus, Mercedes, LVMH and the Maldives Tourist Board as evidence that they should be advertising on Thai Forum . .

This is another example of why we need Bendix on TV.

Edited January 23, 2007 by Jet Gorgon

[dman]

This poll was screwy. You should have separated people into Expats and Tourists from the start and gave each his/her own form.

Example:

[4. Where are you now?]

Other country (Home) 43.6% 1,309

1,309 are not expats living in Thailand as they live elsewhere, yet in[5. Expat or tourist?] 1,554 people claim to be expats from between 1-10 years? How is that possible? Do they think because they have been coming to Thailand on 2 week annual holiday breaks for 10 years they are now expats with 10 years of "living" in Thailand? See how the picture starts to blur? If you wanted to pin people down to being honest, you should have used IP tracking in the poll which would have fixed the country/location.

Aqua

Here is how the results can get swewed without people being dishonest. I am a 5-10 year TH Expat,, not presently in the country,, but I am not back in my home country and I am not on vacation. I got stuck on this question, Where are you now because I could not answer it correctly.

I have been living in LOS for 7 years. I have a house, TH-wife, child, and up to date retirement visa. Am currently (6 months) working in China on asigment but still keep my Thai visa active and visit LOS home/family as often as possible. I am a TH Expat but living elsewhere, albeit temporary apartment in Shanghai for 2 years? Shanghai is certainly not my home country and I am not on vacation. Questionaire could have had more choices or been worded differently. Hope this helps.

Cheers

[abdulrahman]

The results on income do not surprise me at all, because more people responded that they were over 50, and probably retired with a good pension plus money they had from selling their homes overseas etc.

I would be surprised if many members were deriving anual earnings of 1-2 million baht a year from businesses in Thailand..more likely that they live here and make their money from overseas via the Internet or Exporting. IMHO

Just my 2 satangs worth.

No disrespect to the people who put the survey together, but these income figures cannot be relied on. As someone has already pointed out, most of the respondents have never posted before and a significant chunk don't live in Thailand. So, by default, they will be posting their income from wherever else they live.

I hope the forum management doesn't use this to approach Lexus, Mercedes, LVMH and the Maldives Tourist Board as evidence that they should be advertising on Thai Forum . .

Agree with Pauly,since many of the expats on the survey are mature males,they need that kind of money to live comfortably in Thailand.I believe this may explain the difference in income requested for a retirement Visa versus a marriage Visa,a younger person married and working locally earns a lot less.May the Immigration Department consider this? or is it to much to pretend of them?